It was a cold and grey November morning that saw the Lions U15 play their semi final game in the U15 league finals, with the Lions playing in the 5th - 8th place finals after narrowly missing out on 4th place. This was also the first time the Lions had played the Tokyo Star Kings, not having faced them in the league.
Pratyush won the toss and elected to bowl.
The Star Kings innings proceeded without a major gap opening between the sides - the run rate ticking over but the Star kings also being challenged by the Lions bowling attack and with a steady fall of wickets. The Lions fielding was strong during the innings with 2 catches and 4 runouts. George, returning after a break shared wicket keeping duties with Ethan. At the end of the 20 overs the Star Kings were 120/8 with 4 Lions bowlers taking one wicket apiece. The only blemish was the number of extras, at 52 being higher than it needed to be. The Lions felt that this was a winnable game.
Juto and Pratyush opened the batting for the Lions, Juto hitting 25 before retiring after facing his regulation balls and Pratyush hitting 25 from 26 before bring run out. Sam added 18 before retiring and Jamie at number 7 added a confident 11. For the last few overs it felt like the Lions could chase down the score and then tension was mounting, but by the end of their 20 overs they were 2 short - the team scored 13 more off the bat than the Star Kings, but the number of extras became the deciding factor. It was an agonising semi final loss, but there was no time to dwell (or warm up) as it was onto the next game....
Stats: Highest scoring batsman : Juto & Pratyush (25 each), best batting strike rate : Pratyush (96), most wickets : Pratyush, Sam, Jamie and Mantra (1 each), best bowling economy : Sam (2.7).
Player of the Match: N/A
Team: Ethan Williams, George Loran, James Smethers, Jay Davies, Juto Ball, Mantra Joshi, Patrick Mullane, Praytish Bist (Captain), Sam Robinson, Tasuku Imada, Tatsuki Pickard.
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