4th Grade Report vs Campbelltown - Camden - Round 7 |
8 wicket loss to 16th place - not what I had in mind when I crawled out of bed to make the trek down the M5 early saturday morning. Batting frailties surfaced again in 4th grade after a string of strong performances. Adam Cubbage is one of the few that stood up on the day El Capitano S. Lin won the toss and batted first. Not great viewing, I'll keep it short as it was a pretty forgettable day with the blade for over half of us. Some rather soft dismissals had 4th grade 4-17 after 10 overs and 5-32 soon after. Kurt 'Zyrtec' Roughley thought he'd take it easy on the lower grades and only use the top of the handle with his dismissal. Best bowling conditions were in the first period before drinks - but of course an opening batsman removed for 0 is going to say this. So 172 from those circumstances was a great effort. The main reason was the performance of Chris Retallick (64) mostly dealing in boundaries as wickets fell around him. With great support from Adam Cubbage (31), showing great resistance and effectively navigating the square shape of the field by avoiding the ridiculous length of the corners. The two put on a valuable 7th wicket stand that gave us a competitive total that got us right back in it. Deva and Dan Lake also showed the top order how it's done with some useful contributions. Early wickets were the key when we took to the field. Charlie Bangs and Dan Lake were incredibly unlucky not to grab at least a solitary wicket in their opening spells consistently beating the outside edge of both batsmen. Frustrating to say the least, those behind the stumps were astonished not to have a chance come our way. A couple of catches were grassed when the game was still well within our reach. Adam Cubbage bowled well but found it difficult to keep things as tight as usual with the short and fast square boundaries. Deva was Deva, never disappoints and was reliable as always. The breakthrough eventually came courtesy of Nic Franklin. Forget any natural abiliy, the 'Placebo effect' of these $12 'Powerband' knock-offs, those I copped an absolute ear-bashing about, was the only reason he trapped our first victim halfway up in front of middle. Obviously our total wasn't competitive. The Ghosts passed our total only 2 down with 9 overs up their sleeve. I hate to use the word 'disappointing', but the overall attitude, I think everyone will admit, wasn't at what was needed to have chance to grab the 6 points. After the season was resurrected against Bankstown S. Lin declared that 4th grade could easily go undefeated until Christmas and as it stood before round 7 we had 4 of the bottom 5 teams in that period, which is more than an achievable task. All is not lost but a win over Sydney Uni in the T20 this week is a must. Will Medcalf |
A poor batting display gives away 6 points
