The return of junior cricket to the fields of the south coast saw the Albion Park Eagles Under 13 team travelling to Myimbar East to take on the might of the Shellharbour Blue team. With home team batting first, it gave the Eagles boys a chance to test themselves against one of the better batting line ups in the competition. The team’s four representative players, Kynan and Kasey Barton, Will Schofield and Aiden Campion, who all played in the South Coast Under 13 team at Orange with distinction, were going to be keys to finding the chinks in the Shellharbour players armour.
Unfortunately, it was a bedraggled sluggish and almost disinterested team that took the field, and they were dealt with accordingly early on. The bowling was serviceable rather than on track, the fielding was only average and there was next to no enthusiasm between the team at all. This can come as a hangover to being away from the game for six weeks but it was noticeable to all who were watching. A couple of spilled chances and misfields gave the Shellharbour team little trouble in starting to knock up a big score. Will Schofield made the first breakthrough, forcing the opening batsman to pull the ball into the air to square leg where Tom Denyer took the catch. The only other wicket to fall in the first 15 overs went to Liam Cergovski with his first delivery which the left hander hit high and wide to deep square leg where Tom Denyer took his second excellent catch. With the drinks break having arrived and Shellharbour already over the century and only two wickets down, a serious talk from coach Anthony Pickering let the team know that this was not the way this team plays its cricket and they needed to pull their socks up, and quickly.
The effort in the second fifteen overs was much more indicative of what this team can do, and proved Anthony’s point that they are better team than they had shown. While wickets didn’t come early, the team stifled the run scoring ability of their best two batsmen and made it much harder for them to get away. The bowling improved and the fielding most certainly was better. Three batsmen retired but they were all required to come back in at the end of the innings as the Eagles bowlers reaped the rewards of better pressure with the ball. Kasey Barton got a well deserved wicket when he bowled McDonald with a perfect fast straight delivery. Josh Peters then gained a wicket with his final delivery, when a miscued shot was hit straight to Kasey at square leg for the catch. Tom then topped off a wonderful fielding and bowling display from himself by bowling the last batsman with a ripping inswinger. Will chimed in with his second wicket, coming from a good caught and bowled from a full toss, which had followed three consecutive long hops. Variety is what will get you wickets. The final wicket came from yet another terrific piece of fielding from Tom, who chased a ball down to deep mid on, turned and threw down the stumps with a direct hit with the batsmen well short of his ground. The last five wickets had fallen for 31 runs, and in the end Albion Park had bowled out their opponents for 182.
Kasey Barton bowled his best spell of the season, concentrating more on line and length than trying to bowl like Brett Lee and fully deserved his figures of 1/9 from four overs. Rob Denny also bowled well today to finish with 0/19 from four overs. Blake Ison was a bit unfortunate in his two overs and just couldn’t quite find the stump line, finishing with 0/23. Kane Rex bowled better than his figures of 0/31 off three overs suggests, which contained some good straight full balls which he has been working hard on. On the other hand, Will Schofield mixed some excellent deliveries with some liquorice allsorts to finish with 2/10 from his three overs. Kynan Barton looks like he’s been watching the darts in the holidays, firing in his off breaks for his two overs for the figures of 0/12, and was also excellent with the gloves in the second half of the innings. Lucas Thompson benefitted from a good spell at training during the week and will improve even more as he gets more overs under his belt every week. He finished with 0/15 from his two overs. Liam Cergovski too is showing great improvement at training and will also benefit with more time with the ball, and today 1/17 from his two overs. Tom Denyer had late tail going with the ball today into the wind and like Kasey looked to have better control by not trying to bowl too fast. His three overs brought 1/15, and along with two catches, a run out and great run saving in the field he led the team by example today. Josh Peters was good again, a bit short in his first over, good in his second and a little wide in his third but finished with 1/10 from three overs. Aiden Campion kept for the first half of the innings, and though he bowled well for 0/9 from two overs perhaps lacked his usual perfect length and penetration from not having his run up quite right today.
The total always looked beyond the Eagles kids but there is always a chance if you can stick to your guns. This didn’t look too likely in the initial stages as the Eagles bats found the bowling was of a pretty high standard. Tom played and missed at one before French cutting the next delivery, and then being bowled opening up the off side on his third ball. After his great effort in the field he was disappointed to end his innings so early. Liam batted well during his time at the crease, leaving the ball well and playing a couple of nice shots, before he received a ripping Yorker that took out his middle stump for 3. He was followed next ball by the unfortunate Lucas, who got the ball of the day which was a yorker that dipped late and also found middle stump waiting for it. Wacky came out and saw off the hat-trick delivery (albeit a skied shot towards mid-wicket) and played a nice hook shot for four not long after. However, it was obvious he was being targeted with the short ball, and it worked when he skied one straight to mid-wicket to be dismissed for 5. At 4/35 things weren’t looking good.
At the other end Josh battled away against the excellent bowling attack and held firm, and he retired unbeaten soon after. This brought Will to the crease to partner Kynan and these two put together an excellent partnership, with Will playing solidly in the V as Kynan took every opportunity of a loose delivery to hit two’s and fours. They were still together at drinks, after which both launched an attacking raid that, just for a few moments, harboured the thoughts of a famous victory. Will retired after his quota of deliveries was reached, and the score was 97. Kane came in after waiting a long time with the pads on and was unfortunate to get a great delivery first up which just clipped his off bail. Blake came to the crease to support Kynan. Unfortunately, Kynan finally died by the sword he had been living by and was caught looking for another boundary with just three deliveries to go until he could retire. Kynan’s innings of 36 was a terrific knock, exactly what the team needed at the time to lift their outside chances of victory, and he played all of the bowling with aplomb. Blake fell next ball to an almost instant replay of Kynan’s shot. Josh played out the hat-trick ball but was out the following over to end the innings. Josh made 13 runs having seen off the opening bowlers, and his practice over the holiday break was seen to be justified. Will remained 18 not out at the end, completing yet another excellent all-round game. He continues to improve every game which is great to see.
The Eagles had been dismissed for 103, tasting defeat by 79 runs. And yet, if only the team had bowled and fielded in the first fifteen overs like they did in the second fifteen, it could possibly have been a different story. The great thing about cricket is that they will be able to use that knowledge to change things around and hopefully come back bigger and stringer in their next match.
No comments:
Post a Comment