We made the trip out to Croydon for round 1 looking to make a good start to the new year with our new look side. We won the toss and batted first.

Craig got us off to a flyer taking 15 off the first over before Charlie got a good ball early on debut to fall in the next over. Mubi and Craig rebuilt and kept the runs flowing until Craig fell for 47. Mubi fell shortly after for 18 on his debut as myself and Ayaan (20) got us to drinks at 3/108. We weren’t able to kick on after drinks as we struggled to rotate strike effectively and got ourselves into a bit of a hole. I threw my wicket away for 36 and started a collapse. Ansh (22*) and Cooper put on 20 for the last wicket to get us to 9/182 and something to bowl at. A disappointing total considering where we were at the halfway point but still something we thought was defendable.

With the ball we didn’t have enough consistency to trouble the Croydon batters, often giving them one bad ball an over to release the pressure which they made the most of. Moose (1/28 off 6.4) and Ansh (1/39 off 7) were our wicket takers. We had some good periods where we were able to build pressure but weren’t able to sustain it for long enough and at the end of the day Croydon were just better for longer, with their opener ending with an unbeaten hundred as they passed us 2 down.

A disappointing way to start off the year with plenty of improvement to be made in all facets as we move to a big game against Hoppers who knocked us out of finals last year.