Match reports Round 4
1st XI
One change to the team this week as captain Damiano gives Danish import and spin option Anique (sneaky aniquey) his debut Brighton cap, who came in for the absent Spackman.
After a disappointing result in the T20 Round, the Tonners were looking to retain the Bayside Cup against Elsternwick. Losing the toss we were sent in with conditions probably favouring the bowlers, a bit of wind around and some hints that the pitch might do something for the seamers.
Opening up with Alleyne and Anderson the two poms put on a steady 60 opening partnership before two slightly controversial decisions dismissed the two openers. Alleyne caught behind from O’Shea from a delivery that seemed to have hit his upper arm, then back in the action again O’Shea taking a catch to remove Anderson which appeared to have bounced. While both batsmen felt hard done by, having got established on a tough pitch, like my old man always says ‘at the end of the day what does it say in the book.’
After this we got a little partnership going with captain tricky Ricky and the silent assassin Charith ticking the score over, but a flurry of wickets lost in clusters followed which made the innings hard to rebuild. Darcy Kennelly proved once again what a useful asset he is with the bat, with a handy 25 helping the team push our way up to 160.
An interesting moment from our innings was Ricky pulling his hamstring and the chunky Dan Anderson having to run for him. It was a choice between Dan and Alleyne, and was likened to the most recent US election….Trump or Clinton.
So overall with 160 on the board we felt as a team we should have got more but recognised that even this score looked unlikely at stages. So after an average spread at tea (no hot pies and sausage rolls), we were going out to field without the captain as his hamstring decided to go for a walk and didn’t want to play.
With a change of Finch opening the bowling with left armed Shimmin, the Tonners got an early breakthrough with Finch snicking off the opener 4th ball of the match. This early momentum followed to the other end, which saw Shimmin snick off the highly spoken about Erasmus, who interestingly called for new gloves after his 5th ball faced out in the middle. I personally thought he wanted to call for new jocks after he looked like he couldnt play a short ball. With 2 wickets early and a third coming as Finch bounced out O’Shea to leg slip, the Tonners were up on top and looking the goods.
A small partnership from Elsternwick in their middle order, however, was slowly edging them closer to the total. Another injury – this time to Charith – meant there were 2 sub-fielders from the 3s helping out. Big thanks to Hugh Hamilton and ‘Magic’ Mike Lees for the great job they did for the team. A sleight of poor fielding, dropped catches and failing to bowl in our areas summed up the latter part of our performance, however, and The Wicks snuck home to victory.
There were certainly positives to come out of the performance and missing two senior players on the field damaged us a bit. The talent within the group in undeniable and with two day cricket around the corner, we will look to build on our weaknesses and turn them into our strengths. Notable performances were debutant Anique who bowled a great spell of tight spin bowling, proving he can be a valuable spin option to the team moving forward. Brunswick next week and everyone remember – don’t worry be happy…..the results will come.
2nd XI
Saturday dawned on a windy and rainy Brighton Beach Oval with the clash of the ladder heavyweights in doubt. Nevertheless, the hardworking lads, except a dodgy Sammy who simply rode the pitch roller while Ruttsy drove, managed to get the ground in tip top shape for the round 4 clash.
With rain coming in infrequent waves and the wind gusting it was definitely a bowl first deck, and bowl we did as Staffy (our inspirational captain) had another decision go his way…..even though he lost the toss (some decisions are just strange).
Sam and Neil got proceedings off to a decent start with 1 pole each, 1 off an absolute peach from Sam that was well caught at point and the other a village short ball from Buzz that was tickled through to the keeper. With Elsternwick sitting on around 2/45 after 13 Stafford brought himself on and immediately got the wicket we needed to further consolidate our decent start. With Jesse bowling absolute beauties from one end and Staffy keeping it tight from the other, we soon reduced Elsternwick to 5/60 and a sub-par score of under a hundred loomed as a distinct possibility. Elsternwick rallied slightly, however, kept on losing wickets at key intervals as Brighton piled on the pressure with an energetic fielding performance, especially after Andrew Martin, who nearly took his second hanger to cement his legendary fielding status. Elsternwick finished on 10/136, all out in the last over of the innings and the Brighton warriors headed off to enjoy a substantial tea (Harry absolutely gorged himself) to ready themselves for the chase.
The chase did not start well. Josh ‘Shed smashed a couple of 4s but his luck ran out as he miscued one to cover. With Stuart ‘Snake following him 2 overs later, Brighton was left wobbling at 2/20 after 6 overs and in real danger of letting their hard work in the field go to waste. Enter Marto and Staffy. The pair put on roughly 100 runs in an exceptional display of quality batting with Marto playing the anchor role (finishing on 48 no) and Staffy smashing every ball to the fence even as he cramped up to finish around 65 (we still think he was simply trying to make a wedding on time). 2 Late wickets caused a minor wobble however Brighton cruised home to finish with 4/137 in around 23 overs. An absolute thrashing in anybody’s terms.
We improved to 3 and 1 and consolidated 4th position on the ladder. Looking forward to more of the same with some 2 day cricket to come!
3rd XI
Arriving at the ground expecting and seeing the wicket looking a bit sticky and slow, we expected the ball to be swinging and seaming around early. We lost the toss and got sent in to bat. Charlie Franklyn and Matt Hardy opened up with Matt Hardy getting off to a great start with hitting a few quick boundaries to take him to 19 before he got dismissed chopping on. There were then 2 quick wickets to fall in the next over, putting pressure on us to build the next partnership. Franklyn continued on with some elegant shots before getting caught on 25. The challenge was to get partnerships in the game and we struggled with players getting starts but getting out soon after. J Drew made 16 and Conor Verney 17, with both players looking confident but unable to capitalise and make a big score to keep the innings together. Leroy Haines also helped us scrape to the score of 120. We were very disappointed but also confident that our bowling depth could challenge Elsternwick, knowing if we got off to a good start we were right back in the game.
Kicking off our bowling innings, Leroy Haines bowled an excellent spell of 1 for 8 off 7 overs with 4 maidens. Mike Lees kept it just as tight at the other end, with the opening partnership successful in restricting Elsternwick to be at just 15 runs after 14 overs. Charlie Franklyn and Marco Walker came into the attack with Walker bowling a cracking delivery to dismiss the batsman. This put Elsternwick desperately on the back foot and gave us renewed confidence we could defend our somewhat meagre total. Unfortunately from here, a lapse in ground fielding, dropped catches and one poor delivery per over gave Elsternwick the chance they needed with the lifting the run rate. Spin was introduced into the game with Duncan Mackenzie bowling his leg spin in tandem with Matt Hardy at the other end. We were unable to restrict the run-rate, however, with some good bowling not being rewarded enabling Elsternwick to consolidate a partnership. Cooper Price then came in late into the innings bowling well but we couldn’t contain the run rate and the total was chased down in the 35th over.
The disappointing result shows that Elsternwick used the conditions better, both with the lines they bowled and patience shown with the bat. A focus needs to come on our talk in the field and commitment to ground fielding, which builds pressure not allowing the batsmen to easily rotate the strike. On the inconsistent fields that we play on this is even more the case. The group will learn from this bad loss will and I’m sure it will ultimately help in the future development of all the young players in our side.
4th XI
