MORPETH (UK) – Young Talents Cricket Academy’s Under-11 team registered a facile victory over the Morpeth Cricket Club in their opening warm-up match before the crucial opener in the Home International Cup being played at the Morpeth Cricket stadium here.

However, the Under-15 team lost their opening encounter against New Delhi’s Madanlal Academy.
For the U-11 team, it was a smooth passage against Morpeth Cricket Club. MCC, batting first, though didn’t lose many wickets, found the run-making tough as they encountered good bowling and all-round fielding from the YTCA side. MCC could eventually score only 89 in their allotted 25 overs.
Nikhil Nambiar impressed with his accurate bowling as his hard work fetched him two wickets while Aaryan picked up one.

In their chase, YTCA batsmen didn’t face much of a restriction from the MCC bowlers, as the Dubai side had enough time to make the most of batting practice, as almost all of their main batsmen found form quickly.

Asad was impressive as the opener, as he top scored with an entertaining 20 before retiring. Nab also made an useful contribution of 17, while the other opener Aaryan added 12.

Meanwhile, in the other match, the U-15 squad, batting first, began in splendid fashion though they lost the opening wicket quite early.

Adnan showed splendid form as he scored 57 from 30 balls. Vishak Chandrasekhar also gave good support by making 25 valuable runs.

However YTCA couldn’t utilise the good start to telling effect as a middle-order collapse ended their hopes of making a score exceeding 200. Abhiraj and Abdulla  tried to prop up the innings, making 40 and 37, respectively.

A flurry of wickets helped the Madanlal Academy restrict YTCA to an eventual score of 163.

YTCA’s chance to comeback into the match depended a lot on early wickets, but Madanlal Academy batsmen prospered on a beautiful batting wicket.

Opener Sikander was in terrific form, hitting at will, and his partner Swastik gave good support in giving a strong opening partnership.

Sikander smashed an match-winning 69, while Swastik added 22. Bharat made 22 runs.

Though the opening partnership appeared to dampen the spirits of YTCA, their bowlers struck back in style to make it a thrilling encounter. However some of the crucial catches went down to hurt their cause.

Sairaj Venkat and Vishakh Chandrasekhar bowled impressively as they fetched two wickets each. Amarnath also picked up one wicket.