The Park batted first and lost three wickets in a clump. Josh Peters batted well for 20 deliveries, playing forward and taking on the best that their opening bowlers had to offer. He made 4 runs before a well-pitched delivery snuck under his defence to bowl him. Kasey Barton wanted to attack from the outset and top edged his second delivery to the keeper, while Kane Rex was unfortunate to pop up a ball to short cover early in his innings. At 3/9 the Shellharbour team appeared confident that victory was around the corner.
What followed was an exhibition of batting and partnerships from the young Eagles team. Blaike Ison and Will Schofield were the first two to combine. Both ran well and looked for singles, as well as dispatching any loose balls that came their way. Will was exceptional. He has a great technique and plays the ball early and is always in position to play the right shot. His leg glancing and strokes off his pads were a joy to watch. He retired after facing his 35 deliveries and was followed soon after by Blaike who had opened the innings and not been phased by the early wickets, or the fact he was dropped once and also caught off a no ball. He looked to play straight and though he was given very little loose to attack he still played the ball well around the field and picked up runs at ease. His was a good first innings for the season.
Next came Kynan Barton and Aiden Campion who also acquitted themselves superbly. Kynan was beaten by a couple of terrific deliveries and then decided to take things into his own hands by hitting over the top. He eventually retired for 18 runs. Aiden was excellent at picking the right ball to hit, keeping out the straight deliveries and whipping away those that strayed onto his pads. When he retired he had top scored with 20 and again his defensive technique was terrific.
With overs running out the last batsmen did the team thing and looked for quick runs. Lucas Brown played a great first innings for the season, not only making 7 runs himself but running hard for his partners and ensuring all byes were taken. His pull/sweep for four and then cover drive out of the middle for two were both exquisite. Tom Denyer threw his wicket away in the team cause in being caught in the last over, but his 12 runs again showed a cross between great timing and hard swinging of the bat. Both Will and Blaike returned to finish the innings, with Blaike on 14 and Will on 15 at the end of the innings.
From their 30 overs the Eagles had scored 5/137 with 47 of those extras.
There was a feeling of quiet confidence in the Eagles camp as the Shellharbour innings began, which was all but swiped away in the first couple of overs as the two opening batsmen played cracking innings. Young Lucas Kay in particular couldn’t seem to miss the middle of the bat, with a number of huge hits to and over the boundary. The Eagles opening bowlers copped the first serve of the onslaught, and perhaps suffered from just being a bit short. Lucas Thompson can at least take heart that he won’t bowl to a better opening pair this summer, and he will learn from this experience. He finished with 0/30 from his two overs. Opening partner Tom Denyer perhaps tried too hard and also dropped too short but did bowl some good deliveries in his 0/17. Kasey Barton and Lucas Brown came on to find two batsmen on absolute fire, and though both tried to do the right thing by getting the ball full and straight neither could get it quite right, with Kasey overcorrecting with full tosses and Lucas just short the ideal length, and as such both were dealt by some lovely strokes both straight and over the leg side. Kasey finished with 0/32 and Lucas 0/30.
Through all of this, four chances went up, but all four went down, one however by Lucas Brown is one only he could have gotten hands on. He saved four rather than a dropped catch. We’ll never know what may have happened if one or both batsmen had been dismissed, but one suspects it would have been a much closer match.
When young Kay had retired for 79 (yep – 79 off 35 balls), a good spell from Aiden brought about the first wicket, when he brought about a top edge that was taken by Tom at square leg. He finished with 1/7 from his two overs which was a good reward for his efforts on the day. Kynan Barton bowled some good spin alongside him and was a bit unfortunate when a couple of unruly hoicks managed to fall safely into gaps rather than to fieldsmen. He finished with 0/18 off his two overs.
The game was almost over when Josh came on, bowled a lovely first ball, then a wide second ball, and then produced the Peters Full Bunger which was top edged to Will at fine leg for the team’s second wicket. It’s great to see that ball still taking wickets in cricket. The winning runs came two balls later, with Josh finishing with 1/2.
Shellharbour Blue finished on 2/138 off just 12.3 overs with 19 extras.
Though it looks like a belting, the positives possibly outweigh the result. The excellent batting from Blaike, Will, Kynan and Aiden in particular, and the fact that the kids didn’t drop their heads in the field and fought it out until the end. Next time they meet, it they can pry out those openers, who knows what may happen.
More than anything, lets hope the weather improves and we can get to training this week, and be ready for next week’s big match against Lake Illawarra at Morley Park.
No comments:
Post a Comment