APJCC Under 13’s: Round 16 vs Kiama Blue at Gainsborough Chase Oval

The Albion Park Eagles Under 13’s team finished off the regular season in style on Saturday, completing a good victory over the Kiama Blue team at Gainsborough Chase in a solid if not perfect display.

Kiama Blue won the toss and elected to field first, which played somewhat into the Albion Park game plan. Skipper Kasey Barton opened the batting with Josh Peters, for the first time this season able to show their excellence in their batting partnership together. Both played with poise and showed in their strokeplay and understanding between the wickets just how well they complement each other, the reason why their partnerships are so good to watch. Kasey reached his retirement allocation on 46 not out, and would have more of this innings to play. Ethan Thompson replaced him at the crease, and showed terrific defensive skills to see of the young swing bowler who was proving to be a handful. He then had to face the young fast bowling tyro, and made one mistake in playing at a wide delivery, and playing it onto his stumps. Otherwise Ethan had shown good grit in the middle. TJ Nasome came out and watched the ball hard, getting good contact on most of the deliveries he faced. He had made one run before he was adjudged not to have gotten his bat behind his crease in time and was out stumped. Josh had continued to play some good strokes, and now soon retired not out for 36 which included six boundaries, putting behind him last week’s duck in style.

Another of the young Eagles middle order collapses began from here, leaving the match open for Kiama to fight back. Aiden Campion received an absolute jaffa, swinging from wide of off stump through his defences to clean up leg stump to be dismissed for 7. He won’t get many better balls than that in his whole career. Logan Goodway came out and immediately showed the benefit of one of Thursday’s training drills, looking to smash any loose ball to the boundary. Unfortunately one of these shots went straight back to the bowler who took a smart catch to dismiss Logan for 1. Ryan Monaghan once again showed a resolute defence, refusing to give away his wicket and looking to be the mainstay, until a fast straight ball from the young leg spinner found his leg stump and he was bowled for 2. Lucas Brown was looking to continue his late season charge with the bat, and despite looking good again he also sent a ball back to the bowler to be caught and bowled. Albion Park had lost four wickets for just six runs and with the score at 6/114 Kiama Blue was back in the contest.

Josh Schofield had come to the crease at the fall of Logan’s wicket, and he was now joined by Kasey, and what followed was a wonderful match sealing partnership. Joshua unselfishly played his role for the team and for his partner, looking for singles to get Kasey back on strike, and sacrificing runs at the end of the over to ensure Kasey was on strike for the next over. He defended terrifically, and he again played some terrific cuts and cover drives along the ground. He finished on 6 not out from 28 balls, but the fact he batted for his team and partner was the most impressive part of his day and shows how close this team has become. Well done Josh, very unselfish batting.

All of this allowed Kasey Barton to unload, and play arguably the innings of his young career. With eight overs to bat, and with Josh helping out with great backing up and running between the wickets, Kasey kept good balls out and punished anything not on the stumps, looking to maximise his score as much as possible. He passed his fifty not long on returning to the crease, and then just kept on going. With one over remaining he was on 86 not out (unknown to the coach and umpire, but perhaps known to the batsman himself). With one man riding the square leg boundary, and gaps twenty metres either side of him, Kasey unfortunately hit three of those six balls straight to the man, getting a two, a single and a dot ball from them. Josh faced one ball to scamper through for a bye, and Kasey hit the other two balls for boundaries, to finish on 97 not out at the completion of the 30 overs. Just one of those strikes straight the fielder, if he had just hit it either side, would have brought up a century. That does not in any way detract from the innings he played. He has sent all season playing the sensible innings in order to set his team up to win matches, and today he not only did that, but was able to unleash the shackles and really go at the ball. It was a terrific innings – and despite not reaching three figures in this match, there will be many times in the future when he will do so.

Albion Park totalled 6/176 from their 30 overs, and now Kiama Blue had their chance at the crease.
Lucas Brown wasn’t quite as accurate as he needed to be, but he took the first wicket when the opening bat thought a ball was going down leg side, only to find it swing back and strike him in front of middle stump without offering a shot, leaving the umpire no choice but to give him out LBW. In the following over Ryan Cergovski also showed the value of bowling straight and full, getting through the batsman’s defences to take his middle stump. Lucas finished with 1/0 from his two overs, and has bigger tasks in the coming two weeks, while Ryan was excellent for his 1/6 from two overs.

Tristan Denmeade hasn’t had much luck with his bowling this season, and again he bowled a spell that deserved much better than the figures of 0/7 suggest. He is going to be very important to the team in the coming two weeks. TJ Nasome bowled a terrific first over, only conceding one run, and though a little short in his second still provided plenty of problems for the batsmen, and 0/12 probably also doesn’t reflect on his effort. Josh Peters again had a couple of catches dropped off his bowling, and again finds a way to confound batters and stumps alike. He drew a cross batted swipe that saw the ball taken by Kasey at mid-wicket, and finished with 1/9 from his two overs. Logan Goodway continued his excellent season with the ball, making the batsmen play almost every delivery. He caught the finest of edges that was well taken by Aiden at keeper, and finished with 1/8 from his two overs. Ryan Monaghan lost his radar a bit this week and his figures suffered as a result, just a bit too wide of off stump. After his wonderful spell last week he has credits in the bank.

Kasey is still trying to adjust his line about 20 centimetres closer than he currently bowls, which would lead to much more wicket-taking. He beat the bat consistently again today, and one rocket took out middle stump at a rate of knots. Ethan Thompson however was once again excellent, and the natural inswing he is creating is causing batsmen all sorts of problems. His hard to hit line and length drew a lofted drive to Lucas at cover who took the catch comfortably. Ethan Finished with ½ from his two overs, with both runs actually being wides, so no runs off the bat. Ethan was also involved in the next wicket, when a botched call between the wickets saw Ethan grab the ball and fire it into Josh at wicket-keeper, who took the bails off for the seventh wicket. Great day Ethan.

Josh Schofield was a bit wide of the stumps himself today with the ball, and three wides were the result. Another shorter delivery was swatted towards wide mid-on, where Ryan Cergovski again showed his preference for going for catches with one hand. It gives the coach a heart attack, but when it comes off it looks spectacular, and on this occasion it was the latter that occurred, resulting in a wicket for Josh and concluding the Kiama Blue innings at 83.

Despite the victory, once again it wasn’t all peaches and cream. Another four catches were spilled in the field, none of them overly difficult, and the team switched off quickly after early wickets had fallen, just believing the rest would do so of their own accord. Cricket isn’t like that, and any momentary loss of concentration can be the difference between winning and losing. In finals cricket, they can be even more important. Hopefully they have gotten all of those out of their system now.

Congratulations to all of the kids and their parents for reaching the finals. It’s a fun time to be playing, and you should enjoy each and every one of them when they come along, because I can let you know from experience they don’t come along as often as you think. The team goes into the finals in good spirits, in good form, and hopefully prepared for tough and exciting cricket.
Thanks to Helen for tasking the scorebook this week and to everyone from both teams who turned up to support the kids.