APCC Under 11 Golds: Round 2 vs Gerringong Green

Round Two for the Albion Park Cricket Club Under 11 Golds took place at the picaresque Kevin Irvine Oval in Jamberoo, and home game for the team that seems to have a worldwide plethora of home grounds. Up against the Gerringong Green team that had won their first-round match comfortably, it was important for the Golds to continue to improve in order to compete. Today’s skipper Blake Ison tossed the coin and Gerringong called correctly and elected to bat first.

It was immediately obvious that the team’s bowling was a better standard than the first round. Both Charlotte Rodda and Bodhie Rodda were excellent today, getting most of their deliveries straight down the wicket, giving the batsmen the ability to have to play shots against them. Charlotte especially bowled three or four good deliveries that caused some problems. Well done! Max Sciberras bowled four excellent overs today, including his first maiden over, and though he didn’t manage to snare a wicket he showed much better poise in the popping crease. Blake Ison is beginning to realise what it takes to get wicket, that is it line and length and not necessarily speed that is the key. He took two wickets in his second over today by doing precisely that, with full straight deliveries that beat the batsmen and crashed into their stumps. Great stuff. He also took the wicket-keeping gloves for the second half of the innings and make some good stops, and almost always was watching when the bowler bowled the ball. Almost. Kane Rex kept for the first ten overs and did well, getting a couple of balls that bounced deviously through him. He bowled well again, and also picked up a wicket through full straight bowling. Josh Peters again raised some questions from the batsmen about his pace, but he is yet to realise that you can’t bowl batsmen out if you bowl a great line a foot outside off stump.

The superstar with the ball today was Lucas Brown, who bowled perhaps the best spell of bowling from a player in this team from the last two seasons. He bowled four overs, including two maidens, and finished with 1/5 – but also did not bowl a single wide or no ball. The batsmen had to play at every delivery, and he certainly deserved more wickets for his efforts. In one over he bowled the perfect leg cutter that left the batsman prodding at fresh air, and flowed it up with the perfect off cutter that crashed into the batsman’s pads, and received a silent appeal for LBW from the standing umpire. Great stuff from Lucas, it truly was a terrific spell of bowling.

Gerringong Green finished with 4/72 from their 20 overs, and now the Park team had to find enough runs to pass them. The innings was given a great platform to build on by Charlotte and Bodhie Rodda who opened up the innings. Charlotte batted through her innings without being dismissed, a great effort, and while Bodhie was dismissed once, he did score his first run in organised cricket, which got a great cheer from the crowd.

The middle order had some work to do but made a great fist of it. Blake Ison strode tot the crease and tried to play immediately as he had finished last week, and as a result was trying to hit the ball too hard. Once he realised his error he played some very nice strokes once again, again penetrating the field and finishing with 16 runs. Kane Rex also started out trying too hard to hit the ball hard, but also played well once he readjusted. His innings total came from one stroke, but it was a lovely drive that brought it up, and he is improving quickly. Josh Peters played perhaps his best innings, choosing the right ball to punch through the field and which to defend stolidly. He also called and ran well between wickets, and his 15 runs without being dismissed better showed his promise. Lucas Brown joined in the fun, running well and playing the ball nicely into gaps for singles in his innings of 9. There were a couple of… let’s say… mix ups… in the running between Lucas and Max, but on each occasion, they both survived. Somehow. Max played one terrific late drive for four to third man which went with power, and his innings of 8 runs was another good step forward for him.

With three overs to go the scores had tightened up. A couple of late wickets proved the difference, and Park’s final score of 8/69 from their 20 overs actually lines up well with the Gerringong score. With penalty runs added for wickets for both teams, Gerringong ran out winners 104 to 85.

The team all improved today from last week, which was most pleasing. Their fielding was very much improved, and the excellent pick-ups, throws and backing up showed that you can put good training into play in the weekend games if the kids want to do it.

Practice this week will focus on straight bowling. Cutting down the number of no balls delivered will give the team a better chance to force a victory, hopefully as soon as next week. A big thanks to all of the parents and siblings who showed up again at the game, hearing the cheers and support is a lift for the coach, so it can only be even better for the kids themselves.