Under 11s go international against Switzerland!

Merstham’s under-11’s side fell to defeat on their international debut, as Switzerland’s batting power prevailed on a sunny Friday morning at Quality Street.

There was a wicket for Merstham in the first over though, as Sid Huggins bowled out Misra to get the hosts off to the perfect start.

Batters M.Kelly and Z.Salim, in at 3 and 4, did well for Switzerland, and at the 12 over mark they had contributed half of the then-current innings total (36 of 72).

Kelly retired after hitting a cracking four through midwicket. He had a score of 31 at the time.

As Adiga came in at no.5, Switzerland were 82-2 with one retiree.

Salim was bowled out by Toby Blennerhassett, with a ball that crashed into the stumps after he misjudged the flight of the delivery. He was replaced at the crease by Meruva and Switzerland were 87-3.

Then, two wickets fell in quick succession, those of Adiga and Coulson and Switzerland were 95-5.

At 100-5 there was a chance for a run out at the keeper’s end but the umpire adjudged the batsman to be just inside his crease when the bails were knocked off.

The 6th wicket fell after 112 runs with Merstham taking a catch through Hashim Pervaiz at square leg to dismiss Modi.

Goodwin-Roberts then hit a nice four through mid-off, and the very next ball Meruva was caught at third man and dismissed for 5 runs. The score stood at 129-7.

Switzerland rallied late on through Goodwin-Roberts and his partner Saju and set Merstham a score of 162 runs to win.

Ro Fisher and Toby McRae opened the batting for Merstham and did well together, hitting 38 runs between them.

At the halfway stage of the Merstham innings, they found themselves at a score of 70-2, and they knew that despite Switzerland struggling to break down their batting attack, they’d have to put their foot on the gas to ramp up the run rate in the second half of the innings.

Switzerland made a breakthrough when Pervaiz was bowled out by Saju. It was a good delivery that hit the leg stump.

Next ball, Saju had dismissed Jack Linham with another good delivery and he found himself on a hat-trick. It was a key moment in the game as they’d gone through two wickets in as many balls.

Bowler 70 dismissed Leib Pienaar with the score at 86-5. It was 87-6 when Switzerland took a great catch deep in the field to stop a shot, hit by Teddy Ross, that would have otherwise surely gone for four runs.

However, ultimately it was too little, too late for Merstham – who at the 25 over limit had 113 runs, 49 short of the required total.

Nevertheless, such a game will surely be considered a valuable cricketing experience, with the result secondary to the enjoyment and development of a promising group of players.