Cake League

Cake League Final - Team Milne v Team Cleaver – 11 April 2022

Team Milne won the toss and elected to field.  Reuben Woods and Henri Anema were the opening batsmen for Team Cleaver.  The big hitting Reuben looked dangerous, and it wasn’t long before he hit his first four. Fortunately for Team Milne, Reuben was bowled out shortly afterwards by Cooper Templeton before he could do any more damage, notching up only 11 runs.  This brought Cam Smillie to the wicket who looked eager to building a solid innings.  Henri, who is a very good batsman, was caught by Cayden Pardey in the 5^th over off the skilful bowling from Ramis Ali.  Ruan Daniels came in at 4 and it looked like he and Cam were going to be the stability that Team Cleaver were looking for.

However, after Ruan was run out for 11, wickets toppled in quick succession, and it was only Cam Smillie who managed to provide some dogged resistance top scoring with 27 not out.  Team Cleaver managed to bat out their 20 overs finishing on 84 for 9.  Team Milne’s gameplan from the start of the innings was to try and restrict Team Cleaver to singles which they managed to execute to perfection limiting Team Cleaver to only three fours in their innings.  All of Team Milne bowled well but the pick of the bowlers were Ramis Ali with figures of 2 for 7 and Cooper Templeton with 2 for 8

Anything can happen in cricket and Team Milne went in to bat knowing that they had to be focused despite the relatively low score needed for victory. Oliver Bambry and Cooper Middleton opened the batting for Team Milne and the early loss of Cooper, who was skilfully bowled by Henri Anema, was not the start Team Milne were looking for, but it was a glimmer of hope for Team Cleaver.  However, Cooper Templeton and Oliver quickly got Team Milne back on track with Oliver hitting five fours and eventually retiring on 36.  This brought Jayden Evans to the wicket and he and Cooper continued the run chase.  They batted with discipline minimising risks and notched up a 27 run partnership before Cooper was bowled, with his score on 13, by Flynn Peters in the 9^th over.  Ramis Ali came in at number five and together with Jayden proved to be another very effective partnership.  They slowly and carefully accumulated runs, levelling the scores, before Jayden finished off the game by hitting a boundary.  Ramis ended up on 13 not out and Jayden on 14 not out.  Team Milne won the final by 8 wickets in the 12^th over and were deserved victors, finishing the competition unbeaten.