 2nd Grade Report Rd 2 v Fairfield - Liverpool
Day 1
After a promising performance in round 1, the young 2nd Grade Stags (barring a few) were keen to continue their good form into Round 2. Dowsley won the toss and had no hesitation batting first on a very flat wicket at Chatswood. Unfortunately, we failed to capitalise on the great conditions as the batsman were guilty of playing a little recklessly. Whilst some of the dismissals were unfortunate, we need to take a little more care and place more value on our wicket.
Dowsley down Old Chatswood way
Dowsley tried to hold the team together with 36 and Garratt scored 21 but it wasn’t our day. The final score of 126 was very disappointing and was helped by some handy runs from Archer and Wright after lunch. The highest partnership for the innings was 25 - the batsman needed to consolidate after a dismissal and show more patience. Each batsman needs to take the responsibility of being the one to score the runs each week.
It was always going to be tough to defend 126, but we certainly gave it a good crack, and at one stage we had Fairfield 5-73. However, a quickfire 36 from their captain got them over the line and they finished at 6-184 at the end of day 1. Wright bowled very impressively and got a lot of life out of a dead wicket to claim 3 of the 6 wickets. Sweeney and Durie also toiled hard and got 2 and 1 wickets respectively.
Day 2
The day started with Dowsley providing the entertainment. With 5 or 6 of the young Stags out helping put the covers away, we had the cover neatly folded into 30 by 1m. Dowsley, unaware that no one else was pulling, promptly attempted to drag the entire cover single handed and fell flat on his face, severely bruising (if not fracturing) one of his toes in the process! Some early morning entertainment for those who helped with the covers!
Back to the cricket, Durie took an early wicket with a sharp yorker, but from then on it was very tough on a wicket that gave little assistance to the bowlers. The two Fairfield batsman showed the patience and control that we lacked and got them to a commanding score of 7-310 when they declared at lunch.
 The skipper called for batsman to value their wicket and not give Fairfield any ‘cheapies’ in the second innings. In the end, we showed a little more composure to finish at 2/129. Sherman (19) and Ritchie (35) both were looking good and hitting the ball very cleanly but would probably be disappointed with how they were dismissed. Garratt (44n.o) and Dowsley (22 n.o) then came together and batted patiently until the end of play.
A watchful Garratt composing his innings
All in all, it was a disappointing performance after last week’s great effort, but it is certainly one we can learn from. There is a lot of time to bat in 2 day cricket, so we need to learn to pace our innings and not waste such great opportunities on good batting tracks.
Nevertheless, with a 1 in 2 start to the season there are still many promising signs going into round 3, the batsman have all proven they are clean hitters with the ability to score a lot of runs and the bowling and fielding has overall been very impressive. Nth Sydney next week – c’mon the Stags.
Dowse | 
