Cricket Tour Blog: Dubai 2018
Posted: 07/04/2018
Sunday 8th April – Dubai City Tour
Today the boys enjoyed a day off from cricket to experience Dubai first hand. Our tour guide took us first around The Palm Islands, then we stopped off at Jumeira Beach to see the impressive Burj-al-Arab, the world’s only 7 Star hotel.
Next stop was the Gold and Spice Souks of the Old City – the boys had great fun here bartering with the tradesmen over the price of their “genuine” watches and other items. The locals were very interested in what we were doing and the boys spent a good long time chatting and giving a great account of themselves and the school.
We then moved on to the Dubai Mall and the incredible Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building at 837m. We got some lunch at the mall, but this wasn’t a place to barter for gifts!
The day was rounded of by Dune Bashing in the desert in 4x4 jeeps and sand surfing with a BBQ. This was great fun and really enjoyed by all.
Saturday 7th April – Match Day 2 v ICC Warriors
With Alex Hinkley at the helm for the juniors today, he continued our good fortune at the toss and chose to bat first. He opened with Joe Miszkowski and together they made a bright start but were both frustrated to hit fielders instead of gaps. Running between the wickets was tough in the high temperatures. Alex top scored with 41 and Joe got 40. A quick-fire 27 by Seb Atkinson helped us post 152 – a par score we thought.
Some loose deliveries allowed the Warriors openers to get off to a bit of flier, however Mo Talukder and Olly Davidson combined to produce 8 overs of high quality spin bowling which really slowed the scoring down and put pressure on the batters. They took 3-33 off their combined 8 overs. Another outstanding fielding performance really put the brakes on for the batting side and in the end the juniors won by 17 runs.
After getting one the disappointment of losing the toss the senior team put in an outstanding performance with ball in hand. George and Awais impressive again. Freddie on his first team debut bowled tightly, restricting the opportunities for the batters to score. Tom took 4 wickets. Elliot took 1 wicket. The most impressive performance came from Henry bowling 4 overs, 3 wickets for 2 runs! Brilliant!
A couple of missed chances but on the whole very impressive in the field to restrict the ICC Warriors to 97.
A changed batting order gave opportunity to different boys to bat up the order. Jasper batted responsibly top scoring with 33, Ben Fitz a good 17 towards the end.
A win by 3 wickets, 9 balls to spare was a good performance against a well organised ICC Academy side.
Friday April 6th Match Day 1 v Just Cricket Academy
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We were based at the ICC Academy today – what an amazing facility! This is probably the best cricket practice and playing set-up in the world. The boys started with a ninety minute net session where everyone got a good workout and first-hand experience of how hot the days are for cricket. Plenty of sunblock, shade and water were needed.
After the practice session, the senior team returned to the hotel for some much-needed sleep, while the juniors kicked off the competitive matches against the Just Cricket Academy U16 team. And what a start they made!
Captain Ed Clews won the toss and batted – he must have fancied the look of the pitch as he led from the front with a blistering 117* off just 83 balls, ably supported by a run-a-ball innings of 44 from Rhys Evans. The power and placement of Ed’s driving was the notable feature of his innings; the JCA bowling attack had no answer to the onslaught and the assertive running between the wickets from all three 91·çÁ÷Â¥·ïbatters. The boys posted 179-1 in their 20 overs. This was an amazing effort considering the conditions and the effects of long travel and a lack of sleep.
The JCA captain Kai Smith started off in similar fashion in the JCA innings, racing to 22 in only 10 balls meaning that his team were ahead of the required rate for the first 7 overs. After this, his opening partner Connor got bogged down by some tight bowling eventually playing a rather ungainly hack to a fuller, wider ball from Freddie Fallows and was well-caught at point by Matt Hill. In truth, some of the 91·çÁ÷Â¥·ïbowling was on the wayward side, being both too short and too wide on a pitch where the ball sat up, inviting cuts and pulls. However, the quality of ground fielding was excellent with Joe Miszkowski and Seb Atkinson conspicuously throwing themselves after the ball with good effect, limiting the number of boundaries and 3’s for the batting side. As the run rate climbed, Smith did his best to keep the scoring rate high, but pressure told on his team mates as a number got in but were not able to build on their own solid starts. The odd bad ball was punished, but eventually, 91·çÁ÷Â¥·ïemerged deserved winners by 27 runs. Ed used 8 bowlers and rotated them frequently, never giving the batters a chance to really line anyone up. Fallows was the pick of the bowlers with 4-0-12-2 and was ably supported by Mo Talukder and Mitchell Hare who both kept things relatively tight, despite not picking up any wickets for themselves.
In the Senior game, Captain George Hatfield also won the toss and batted under lights with the pink ball. They made steady progress reaching 54 before losing Fahd Janjua in the 8th over, George batted very maturely with 50 at a run a ball. Alex Hinkley and Dan Meredith looked good for a short amount of time; unfortunately Dan was run out in a very unlucky fashion as the bowler deflected a hammered drive from George on to the stumps as he was backing up. Awais Mohammed added some urgency to the innings with a strike rate of 186; making 38 from only 17 balls. Tom Maidment and Jasper Davidson finished the innings nicely as we closed on 155 after our 20 overs.
In the field, George and Awais made the openers play and miss and kept things tight. Henry Marshall and Olly Davidson kept things tight, both impressing, Olly in particular, thrown in on his School debut as a year 9 boy sent down 3 superbly controlled overs of left arm orthodox spin and was unlucky to have a stumping chance missed.
Athletic, energetic and skillful fielding meant we eventually finished strongly, but only after dismissing the main JCA danger man at a critical moment when they needed 40 from 3 overs.
Overall this was a great performance from all the boys on tour, well done to all.
Thursday April 5th
A relatively straightforward flight from Birmingham followed by bedlam on arrival in Dubai. It took us two hours to complete the transfer to the hotel so most didn’t get to sleep until after 0300 – lots of tired boys at breakfast!
