Canterbury Academy book place in The Cricketer Schools 100 final

In a repeat of the first game of the tournament, Rajasthan Royals Academy UK looked to avenge the their 95-run defeat

Scorecard

Canterbury Academy booked their place in the final of the 2023 Cricketer Schools Hundred, with a dominant display in the field and with the bat in this year's second semi-final.

In a repeat of the first game of the tournament, Rajasthan Royals Academy UK looked to avenge the their 95-run defeat. Winning the toss and batting first, they were soon a man down with the left-arm inswingers of Will Cook accounting for the innings’ first wicket after only four balls.

Following some willowy wisps at the probing line and length of Ben Burgess during the power play, Rajasthan's Dan Foulds and Ben Sleeman began growing in confidence with the former finding the boundary with increasing regularity. With 41-1 on the board at the halfway stage, a solid base had been established.

Harry Roberts brought back an element of control to the Canterbury attack and soon accounted for the dangerous Foulds. Having amassed 32 from 35 balls, Rajasthan’s bloodied and bruised captain miscued a short one to the waiting Cook at mid-on.

Then, immediately after dispatching Conor Dale over mid-wicket to the boundary, Ben Sleeman (14) was trapped in his crease LBW. Leg-spinner Dale repeated the trick with his next – and ultimate – ball, leaving himself painfully unable to complete his hat-trick attempt.

Thanks to unrelentingly tight bowling, Rajasthan were left unable to do much more than scamper the occasional single thereon. Being trusted with the final 10 balls, left-hand offie Ollie Jordan-Smith repaid his captain with an eventual return of two wickets for 6 runs from his three overs.

And when Canterbury effected two run outs in the final set, the Royals were left to reflect on losing six wickets at the cost of only 16 runs – the stubborn Sam Jordan the last man to fall for 7 – leaving their opponents with a target of 60. 

In reply, the Canterbury openers began positively without ever feeling the need to crank things up to fifth gear – Emile Haratbar's clinical square drive and Ollie Jordan-Smith's insouciant pull among the most attractive of the boundaries scored.

With the target in sight, Haratbar completely missed a lusty swing to be clean bowled for 23 by the dogged Isaac Hurtel-Hymans. Enter Josh Julian (12*) to knock further ones and twos with Jordan-Smith (16*) before placing the 50th ball of the innings through mid-on to complete the victory and proceed to Sunday's final against Shenfield High School.

All games at The Cricketer Schools 100 are being streamed using FrogBox kit. See how to capture all your cricket with FrogBox by clicking here.