Lamphun’s junior cricket teams very first hardball game against a very similar inexperienced Mae On cricket team, which resulted in a last over win for Lamphun. Both teams had a high proportion of girls playing and for many of the children it was also their first taste of real cricket, children from 3 different schools made up the Lamphun team. All the players playing in this Mae On team were from the Maeonwittyalai school so a complete change of team for Mae On from one who played against Gymkhana Juniors a month ago.
Mae On captain Fluck lost the toss and the Lamphun captain Ploy asked them to bat first. Fluck and Joe opened and gave the team a solid start, Fluck batted well for his 5 before he was run out but Joe scored 19 runs and was the backbone of the innings and along with the 34 extras it gave Mae On a modest total of 61 runs in their 15 overs. For Lamphun, the bowling wasn’t too bad, Ploy took 1 wicket for 13 runs in 3 overs, with Nok taking a very fine catch behind the stumps, Yoon bowled very straight but without any luck and he went for 10 runs off his 3 overs, Dik took over behind the stumps to let Nok bowl, she bowled great, straight and full and was very unlucky not to take more wickets, but deservedly finished off with a caught and bowled from the last ball of the innings, to finish with figures of 1 for 4 runs off 3 overs.
The Lamphun innings got off to a poor start, losing Dik and R in the first over then star batter Ploy was run out in the second over, the score at 6 for 3 it was not looking good for Lamphun! It was up to Nok and Kwan to keep the team in the game, they did that by staying there and with the extras mounting up the score eased to 41 at the 10 over drinks break. The girls did well Nok scored 8 runs and Kwan 5 runs but both were out with the score on 54 with 2 overs to go, it was left to Yoon to score the winning runs with a nice push through the covers in the 15th over to seal the win. The Mae On bowlers did well but didn’t have the depth, and 45 extras basically gave the win to Lamphun. Joe 1 for 8 off his 3 overs, Kuai bowled well with 1 for 8 off from 3 overs but left armer Parn with 2 for 10 for 3 overs was the pick of the bowlers. A very closely contested game with extras top scoring for both teams, but hopefully both teams enjoyed the experience despite one losing. Lamphun’s coach Chris Dood’s “Player of the Match” was Lamphun’s Nok for a great all round performance,.