Our trip to Mount Pleasant was a first for your correspondent and pleasant it was, bucking the trend of inner city/town grounds left to rack and ruin with cricket barely playable.

It is clearly a cricket ground looked after with a lot of love and dedication and Batley deserve to host the T20 Finals Day our 1st XI will be striving to be at for consecutive summers.

Winning the toss our Under 15s chose their well-worn path of batting first and Monty Ramsden and Sam Walker with 20 ensured a decent start. Will Sweeten was unfortunate to be run out by a direct hit and when sam soon followed we were wobbling on 41 for 3.

A couple of trademark Oliver Frearson boundaries gave our innings impetus which continued as Alex Gillgrass struck four 4s and a maximum in making 26 off just 13 balls.

Ayaan Akram batted sensibly for a run a ball 24 alongside Frearson and Gillgrass. Ayaan was then joined at the crease by his younger brother Smiler who made a hugely important 10 runs. The efforts of Yusuf and his U13 teammates George Deighton and Daniel Dent enabled us to close on 121 all out which felt a little light with a short boundary and lightning-fast outfield.

Batley had a batsman from Ackworth on debut who was well known to Monty and Sam. Rehan Kiriella was untroubled as he retired on 32 off 23 balls ensuring Batley made a fast start and we were really up against it.

However, wickets from Harry Dalzell who was shaping the ball away nicely to force a nick to Monty, a lbw for off spinner Akram and a classic piece of deception in the flight by leg spinner Walker kept us in the game.

In the penultimate over Sam took a 2nd wicket aided by a sharp stumping by Monty and we appeared to be in the driving seat.
However, Sam’s final delivery was dispatched in the direction of the Batley Bulldogs Fox’s Biscuits Rugby League stadium leaving the hosts requiring just 5 to win off Alex’s final over.

A wide first up was not “what the doctor ordered” and a 2nd so nearly followed. Two singles and a leg bye saw the scores level with two balls remaining. The penultimate delivery was a fast short bouncer of sorts but importantly was as a dot and when the final delivery was missed Monty beat the batsman in the race to the wickets as the match ended in a tie- the 2nd tie out of three Under 15 fixtures for Batley.

We probably got a bit more than we deserved in the final analysis but not more than the youngsters Daniel, George and Yusuf deserved. Their runs and efforts in the field will live long in the memory and hopefully some of their older teammates may have learned a thing or two observing them.

Had there been one, Alex probably deserved to be man of the match for his quickfire runs and for delivering under pressure at the end but undoubtedly the fielding point would have belonged to Smiler.

Match Report by Paul Ramsden