Double victories secure QE place in semi-final of new national competition
The Under 15s won their last-16 and quarter-final games in the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup to book their place in the semi-finals – with the glittering prospect of playing at Lord’s in the final if they win.
After the QE boys first saw off Woking High School, their strong bowling attack then propelled them to victory against Shenfield High School from Essex, with both matches hosted by Eton College.
Named after state-educated England cricketers Heather Knight and Ben Stokes, the new hardball competition is open only to state schools.
U15s coach (and the PE department’s Head of Aquatics) Richard Scally, said: “The boys produced two outstanding performances to reach the national semi-finals. The team is now one of the final four schools remaining from more than 750 schools that entered the competition.”
The U15s have been enjoying a vintage season, winning many of their regular fixtures and reaching the final of the Middlesex County Cup, where they lost to Merchant Taylors’.
In the new competition, they stormed through their county round, which culminated in victory against Heston Community School, to go through to the knockout stages.
After that, in the regional stage hosted by Caterham School in Surrey, they first comfortably saw off Midhurst Rother College, West Sussex, and then delivered a six-wicket win against Tiffin School, Kingston upon Thames, to go through to the last 16.
Batting first against Woking, they posted an imposing 161-4. “That was thanks to superb unbeaten half-centuries from Akein Athukoralage and Rushil Matta, who both finished on 50 not out,” said Mr Scally. “Our disciplined bowling attack, led by the spin bowlers, ensured we defended the total comfortably, securing a 30-run victory.”
The quarter-final against Shenfield proved a much tougher contest. “Batting first again, we came up against an excellent bowling attack and were unable to build the partnerships we had hoped for, eventually being bowled out for 100.”
The day was saved by “an exceptional display in the field”, Mr Scally reported. “Outstanding opening spells from Mayank Jagetia and Tanay Shetty reduced Shenfield to 10-4, putting them immediately on the back foot. From there, our team never relinquished control, dismissing the opposition for just 71 to complete a memorable 29-run victory.”
QE’s national semi-final against John Hampden School from High Wycombe will begin at 10am on Thursday 16th July at Wormsley Cricket Club in Buckinghamshire, renowned as one of the country’s most beautiful grounds. The other semi-final takes place at Headingley.
The winning semi-finalists will play in the final at Lord’s on Thursday 10th September.
The U15 team
- Akein Athukoralage
- Mayank Jagetia
- Daiwik Khedekar
- Aarav Kaushik
- Neil Bhabra
- Rushil Matta
- Aarjav Jain
- Ryan Goyal
- Tanay Shetty
- Neel Sinha
- Kabeer Saini
- Aarav Agrawal
- Anirudh Premkumar (substitute)
- Krishanth Rajesh (standby)
- Aneesh Botcha (standby)