Kiama won the toss and elected to field, giving the Eagles the chance to put on a score that would be difficult to chase down. The pleasing thing was that the boys took their chance and did exactly that. Kasey Barton and Jack Couley opened the batting and put on an excellent partnership of 39. Jack hasn’t had the bat in his hand for a few weeks and was slightly nervous before the start, but he was soon into his work, and dominated the scoring in the early overs. He punched several strokes straight through mid-off and mid-on and ran a number of twos to keep the scoreboard ticking over. He was soon dispatching shorter deliveries through square leg and playing well. It was almost a surprise when he skied a ball and was dismissed by a great catch for 25 runs. Well played Jack. Kasey was now joined by brother Kynan and put together a 50+ run partnership of their own. Kasey played a number of beautiful off drives and a couple of magnificent punches off the back foot through cover as well, all along the ground. There is no batsman in this age group who plays those strokes better than Kasey, it is where he excels, and his running between the wickets was also exemplary. He eventually retired with another score over thirty to his name and had helped get his team the perfect start. At the other end Kynan showed no interest in defence and was playing shots from the outset. He had some fortune, being dropped on three occasions, but it hindered him little as he cavalierly charged the bowling or rocked onto the back to pull heartily. He retired with 48 to his name, having lifted his head trying to get to his fifty off his final delivery.
After such a start the pressure was off the rest of the batting order which allowed them the freedom to play without concern for the scoreboard. Liam Cergovski again showed a good defensive technique in his time at the crease, before he got a leading edge to be caught for 3. Owen Pickering continued on from his good work last week, blasting four boundaries with strong wrists and forearms before being undone by the young leg spinner to be caught and bowled for 31. Blake Ison also looked good again, happy to get his eye in first before beginning to use a tennis smash technique to get the high balls through the leg side. He had made 15 before a ball hit by Owen straight to point saw a call of yes that found Blake well short of his ground by the throw. Lucas Thompson was the unluckiest batsman of the day, getting a full toss over the waist first ball that was called a no ball, but thinking his partner had called him through he started running, only to find the ball had stopped just next to the stumps, and the wicket keeper picked it up and ran him out before he realised what had happened. Some days are just not your day. Rob Denny hit a lovely four through deep backward square and played a good supporting role to Owen but was eventually caught by another good catch for 10 runs. Lucas Brown helped to win the game last weekend with the bat but found the other side of the coin today when he was caught for a duck off just four balls. Cricket can be a cruel mistress.
Both Kasey and Kynan returned for the last couple of overs, and after a coupe of attempts to run each other out Kynan found the two singles he needed to raise his fifty. Well played Kynan, who finished on 52 not out, while Kasey was also excellent in remaining not out on 43. After their thirty overs Albion Park finished on 7/205.
With a big total to defend the message was to repeat the blueprint from last week – walking in with the bowler, backing up throws and catch everything. The Kiama batsmen saw off Albion Park’s openers, and it was Lucas Brown who made the first breakthrough with the perfect delivery full and straight and just clipping the top of off stump. A great delivery. Wickets didn’t fall but the fielding overall was good and restricted the scoring. Blake Ison finally drew a shot out of the facing batsman with a shorter ball which was hit to mid on where Josh Peters took the catch for the second wicket. Just before drinks there was a mix up between the batsman, and Josh ran from mid-on to mid-wicket, picked up the ball and threw it right over the to of the bails at the bowlers end for Owen to break the stumps and compete the run out. At drinks Kiama was 3/58.
Straight after the drinks break Kynan beautifully deceived the facing batsman and bowled him neck and crop to have the bottom of the order coming to the crease. Kiama fought hard and made their way to 4/88 before the final boom fell, and quickly. Tom Denyer had beaten the edge on a few occasions on the morning, and finally found the smallest nick that was beautifully snared by Owen as keeper, having to reach forward with his gloves to get the ball before it died in front of him. A great keeper’s catch, well done Owen. An over later Josh beat the batsman in flight who skied the ball to mid-on where Lucas Thompson took a terrific catch under enormous pressure. It was great to see the smile on his face afterwards, well done Lucas. Josh then drew the same stroke out of the next two batsmen, unfortunately the skied balls fell to ground avoiding all the fieldsmen charging at the ball. Next over and edge through to third man was chased hard by Kasey from point, who then turned and threw hard and hit the stumps at the strikers end direct, finding the batsman short of his ground trying to steal a second. Great fielding from Kasey. Next ball the last batsman pulled a ball from Lucas Brown straight to Jack at mid-wicket who made a difficult catch look easy and competing the Kiama innings all out for 91 runs.
Tom and Josh were the non-batsmen today but did well with the ball, Tom taking 1/14 from four overs and Josh 1/10 from three overs. Lucas Brown was again superb, and when he bowls straight and full he is always successful finishing with 2/6 from 2.2 overs. Rob bowled well without luck today but showed he is still a danger with 0/6 from two overs. Lucas Thompson is improving every week, and he bowled better again today in his 0/10 from two overs. Before too long he is going to be a handful with the ball. Blake came off a short run today and did perfectly to finish with 1/9 from two overs. Hopefully this means he won’t come off 74 steps at training this week as a result. Owen Pickering bowled his best spell of the season to finish with 0/4 from two overs including a maiden, while Kynan darted his way to figures of 1/3 from two overs. Jack was his usual accurate self and bowled well considering the length of time between overs, taking 0/4 from two overs. Kasey probably tried to bowl too fast today, no doubt still enthused from his batting exploits, but still finished with great figures of 0/2 from two overs, while Liam backed up another excellent spell as wicket keeper by taking 0/8 off two overs with the ball.
While the fielding and bowling wasn’t quite as good as in last week’s victory over Oak Flats, and the batting gave too many catching chances to the opposition to be completely happy about, the boys did enough to win this game comfortably, and has now secured fourth spot on the ladder. If they are able to win both of their final matches against lower placed teams, they will be playing in the finals in March. There is still work to do to ensure that, but already I can imagine that the other final teams are very nervous about having to face this terrific young Albion Park Eagles team come finals time.
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