A couple of early wickets fell though it didn’t seem to influence the batting momentum. Tom Denyer has shown in recent weeks a touch of impatience at the crease and a tendency to try and hit the ball too hard which has restricted his scoring. Last week he was bowled in such a manner, and today again he unfortunately missed out in the same manner being bowled for 4. Josh Peters just can’t quite seem to get the start he needs to get his innings going, and today again found a good full ball undo him as he was bowled for 2. Perhaps not trying to turn a yorker to leg would be a good start.
Elsewhere however the batsmen thrived. Kynan Barton opened and played a mix of extravagant strokes and textbook strokes. He tested out the fieldsmen on occasions but was positive and showed plenty of intent. Will Schofield once again played well, though a couple of shots where he was looking at the sky instead of the ball gave some cause for concern. When working the ball around he still looks to be the best batsman technically in the team (that’s just my opinion… 😊 ). He retired after his 35 deliveries had brought him 26 runs. Kasey Barton carried on from his terrific innings from two weeks ago, taking on the bowlers and running hard. His square cuts along the ground are a joy to watch, and with no lack of power. His batting with Will was great to watch as they built up the lead. Owen Pickering would have known he wasn’t going to get two bites of the cherry this week and went on his quest to score the team’s first half century from the first delivery. He had some slices of fortune mixed with six boundaries and could conceivably have reached his goal if he had only tried to work the leg side deliveries away rather than try to bash them. He eventually retired after his 35 deliveries had brought another entertaining 37 runs.
Kane Rex got the biggest cheer of the day when he scored his first run of the season with a nice push through mid-off. From here his confidence grew steadily, and as well as supporting Owen in his innings he managed to play some excellent shots of his own, including an all-run three off his bat from a ball that only went to mid-on. If only he remembered to slide his bat he would have no doubt retired not out, but instead was run out for 6 when his bat was still in the air but past the crease line. Lesson learned hopefully. Lucas Brown and Jack Couley were both victims of chasing quick runs in the dying overs. Jack looked to play in his usual flamboyant fashion, and managed 1 run before losing his stumps in trying to up the run rate, while Lucas looked solid again before being called back for a risky second run which saw him either just short of his ground or unfortunate to be given run out when the umpire was still behind the stumps rather than side on – depending on your allegiances. Kynan and Kasey returned to see out the overs, with Kynan remaining 47 not out and Kasey 43 not out, as the Eagles finished their 30 overs at 5/210.
The message from coach Anthony Pickering was to finish the game early, and the boys did their best from the outset, with a run out from a throw by Kynan to wicket-keeper Owen found the batsman short. This was followed by two wickets in two balls from the metronome Aiden Campion, who having been one of the non-batters took out his frustrations on the Gerringong batsmen with perfect deliveries that both bowled the batsmen on length and pace. He missed the hat-trick but finished a superb two over spell with figures of 2/1. Blake Ison has improved every week, and his run up today was as smooth as silk, which gained him a yard of pace and caused the batsmen some difficulty. His two overs were excellent, and he finished with figures of 0/2. Lucas followed, and again showed good pace and a much better length of bowling. He was unfortunate to beat the bat a number of times and suffer from a dropped catch, and his figures could have been much better than 0/2 from his two overs. Kane took the confidence he had gained from his batting, and in the process picked up his second wicket for the season when a skied catch to mid off was well taken by Lucas to be the fourth wicket to fall. Kane’s excellent day was completed by figures of 1/14 from his two overs.
Kasey again showed off his wonderful bowling action and excellent pace and length in his spell, but again perhaps just missed his direction. You can see his frustration in not being able to pick up wickets, as again today he did everything well, but the batsmen couldn’t get bat on anything EXCEPT the balls that would have hit the stumps. His day will come. Today he finished with 0/2 from two overs. Will bowls much like his sparring partner ‘Wacky’, and he was reared again today for straight full bowling when the batsman spooned a return catch back to him for yet another catch and yet another wicket. The only run he conceded today was a wide, and his figures from two overs was an impressive 1/1. These two were followed by the team’s spin twins who bowled well in tandem. Josh continued to cause a conundrum for the batsmen, tying them up and frustrating their attempts to score. Kynan was able to use this to his advantage and entice the batsmen to open their shoulders. He picked up two wickets, both bowled with quicker deliveries having tossed up some higher slower deliveries to tempt them beforehand. It was good, sensible bowling. Kynan took 2/8 from his two overs, while Josh finished with 0/2. The match was finished off by Jack, who came on late and beat the last batsman with pace to take out his middle and off stumps to finish with 1/2 from his only over and deprive both Tom and Owen from being able to journey to the bowling crease. Gerringong was bowled out for 40 from 17 overs.
It was another good team performance today with everyone contributing. The boys are getting on well together and have bonded excellently this season. The only downside of the fielding effort today was the number of catches that went down, especially as none of them were terribly difficult, as well as some misfields, not backing up and not walking in with the bowler. On this day they didn’t affect the result, but against the bigger teams they will mean the difference between victory and defeat. Switching on at training and concentrating on drills rather than just purely mucking around will help to improve this side of things. Which is probably a bit harsh on Tom because he never drops anything at training.
There are two games remaining until the Xmas break, and hopefully we will see continued improvement in this team as they move into the second half of the season.
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