A wonderful weekend of friendly cricket brought many good signs for the coming season for Lanna but ultimately the two matches were lost narrowly to Northern Lions and University CC. On Saturday the Lamphun youngsters chased a target of 139 with one wicket in hand then on Sunday University CC defended a total of 144 to beat Lanna by 25 runs.
A lot of hard work has been done on the square at Prem David Buck Oval but the bowlers will still hold sway over the batters until the new pitches settle down and Lanna’s bowling attack performed well on both days as four bowlers claimed two wickets apiece before Northern Lions last pair reached their target after Chalam had batted very well to score 33 in the first half of the innings before retiring.
Chris Coombes had started the season impressively by scoring 29 and Elliot tried to build the total by scoring 31 not out at the end but the innings was hindered by three run outs including Adrian when he came out of his crease when Leng was caught off a free hit.
In the second match Ali, Abaid and Cheema all scored runs for University CC with Cheema showing what was possible by hitting three sixes but it was Aamir who caught the eye with a composed 29 from 42. Lanna’s bowlers did well to bowl out the opposition for 144 in 25.3 overs as Chucker, BJQ and Elliot all claimed three wickets.
Three wickets were lost in the first ten overs of Lanna’s chase as Coombsey fell early in his second innings of the weekend but Cher then hit the only six for Lanna before falling to a great catch on the boundary. BJQ hit two fours in his innings of 24 and visiting youngster Toby batted steadily for 12 before Elliot called him in so the captain could attempt the chase with Richie.
Both reached double figures so there were signs of hope for Lanna but Abaid and Cheema had bowled very accurately and the low bounce made timing the ball difficult. Running singles and twos became more important but another three run outs saw Lanna bowled out for 119 to lose by 25 runs.
Two defeats did not tell the whole story of a very pleasant weekend of cricket and we can leave it to Toby’s father Chris who also played in Sunday’s match to sum up what a wonderful spirit Lanna have in our club. Well done to everyone that played in the two matches over the weekend and we can look forward to future contests with confidence.