On Sunday the 21st of August, my cricket club, Wildfire CA, played a match against Bloomfield cricket club at President’s College Rajagiriya. The match started at 1PM and we started on a bad note losing the toss, however we got to do what we wanted to do which was bat first. The other team started with an interesting field, choosing to have no leg side fielders in a 20 over match which our openers took full advantage of as we were 90/0 at the halfway point. Unfortunately after losing some wickets and therefore some of the momentum, we were unable to capitalize on this great start and finished with 188/6 in 20 overs which was still not by any means a poor score.

We started the match poorly with their opening batsman taking advantage of our rustiness and scoring at a rapid rate to get a 50 within the first 7 overs. However once our strike bowler got 3 wickets in 4 balls, including the dangerous batsman, we were suddenly on top. I was introduced in the middle overs however it was fairly obvious that this was my first time holding a cricket ball in 3 weeks as I went for 14 runs with some poor bowling by my standards. We managed to stem the flow of runs with our main off spinner even though we were unable to take anymore wickets and when it came to the last over they needed 22 runs to win with two very capable batsmen still at the crease. With no other specialist death bowlers available, the ball was handed to me and while extremely nervous due to my incapability in my first over however I managed to use a slower ball and get a wicket. Luckily the over went well and we managed to win the match by 16 runs. Overall it was a fun experience and I’m happy to have been a part of it.

Learning outcomes:

Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth: When bowling the last over I used my strength of variation to control my line and length and be able to contain the number of runs that were conceded in my over.

Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process: I was able to see the mistakes that I made in my first over and learn from these by doing well in the second over.

Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively: Participating in team activities like cricket always help me to understand how to work collaboratively and as a team to ensure that you do better and learn the advantages of working together.