U13s Round 1 Wrap!

We opened our season with a home game against the Altona Roosters with 7 of our players being new to the side.
A lot of fresh faces and stepping up from cubs, we have again reinforced to everyone that it isn’t about the wins and losses, it is about player development and enjoyment that our season will be judged on.
So , with so many new players, this year we decided to go with full time leadership rather than rotating it, so Roy and Owen were chosen as co-captains, so they jointly lost the bat flip and were asked to have a bowl first.
With some tight bowling at the start it made the batters defend strongly which had the Roosters crawling to 10 runs in the 6th over when we got our first wicket of the season by a good catch from Roy off Dylan’s bowling. This trend was to continue with our bowlers mostly keeping the lines tight and their batters having to protect their wickets constantly. There were a few loose balls of course but we bowled well and the pressure was stifling the Roosters, they did have some retirees, but they were struggling to turn the scoreboard over. Leo bowled their number 5 to get our next wicket to have them 2-49 in the 16th over, which opened the up the game for us as we then consistently took wickets to finally restrict them to all out 72 on their last ball from the their 24 overs.
Of that was only 20 runs in extras, which is a brilliant result for our first bowl of the year.
Notable bowling figures were Dylan with an amazing 3 for 2 off 2 overs, Ryder 1-5 off 3 , Roy 1-7 off 3 , Leo 1-7 off 3 and Owen 1 for 2 with a maiden from 2 overs.
Special mention to Sebastin with his first over being a maiden and to the team in general, only 2 players went for double figures in their bowling.
The fielding was excellent, and as always, when will other teams learn not to run on Rose’s arm in the outfield, combing with Owen for a nice run out.
It was our turn to bat, so we went with what we thought was our stronger batters in Ryder and Owen to open, who both put a price on their wicket and did well, with a watchful approach. Ryder was able to retire in the 4th over and then Leo came in and continued until Owen went out caught for a good 6 with a boundary in his score, that had us at 1-23, which quickly became 2-23 as Leo unfortunately went out as well, both of them facing double digit deliveries, which was what we wanted, to stay in as long as possible. Xavier Sand Dylan were now batting, with Dylan getting off the mark with a wonderful boundary, they had a nice little partnership till Xavier S wet out, which brought Kyal in. Dylan and Kyal then both made some quick runs with Kyal blasting boundaries, both of them were able to retire – a great achievement. Sebastian was next and for his first game, he also was able to get behind the ball and spend time in the middle to also retire. Rose was next, but it wasn’t her day, with Roy then looking like he would continue to rip the game open, fell next which left the retirees to start coming back in with 9 overs still left and runs to be made.
There was a little mix up with Ginger being run out, but from there on Ryder, Dylan and then Kyal kept the runs flowing with some amazing shots to see us through to the final over when we lost our 8th and last wicket. We finished on 127, which was a nice result.
Notable batting was Ryder made 29 n.o, Dylan with 25 and Kyal with his 19 – all of them hitting 4 boundaries each.
So we get the season off to a good start with a win.
Have Williamstown Imps away at Hatt Reserve, I am sure both teams will look different from the last time we faced them in the semi final last season.

Go Spotty!!
Coach Crispy