Spotswood 4th XI Round 1 Match Report v Williamstown at Home

With the traditional first week being called off, we faced Williamstown at home in a 1 dayer, with the bulk of the side from last season and with a coupe of debutants for the team in Jackson Kerr and Robbie Virk.
As usual we were greeted by a lovely looking pitch on a nice day, so when I won the toss, I did what we normally do and put Williamstown into bat.
Opening the bowling with myself and Adrian ‘Dizzy’ Fortini, we clamped down on them in immediately and with their captain/opener pinging his quad looking to score a quick single, we were able to take advantage of it with Dizzy nicking him off in the 4th over to have them 1-4.
This was to be our only joy to drinks as we kept them quiet for the first 9 overs until the loose balls started to accumulate, with their number 3 quickly pouncing on anything that wasn’t of good quality. We had moments of enacting our plan of tight bowling and pressure fielding, but there was too many times where we simply bowled badly, giving up extras or boundaries which kept the Williamstown score ticking over comfortably at 4 an over. It took until the 20th over to get our 2nd wicket via a run out, but it was a big wicket as their number 3 took on myself in the field and with a good throw from the outfield, Johnny whipped off the bails to have him short of the crease for a brisk 56. They then reset themselves and put on another 35 runs quickly in 5 overs until they pushed for 2 again to myself in the outfield where I was lucky enough to run out the stubborn opener with a direct hit to see him off with a gritty 27runs from 73 balls, 3-117 after 24 overs.
From there, we started being a bit more consistent with our bowling, with Jackson taking his first wicket for the club in the 30th over to have them 4-132 and then we started to get our game going. Jesse Wittman was given the ball and after getting his radar going in his first over, he proceeded to put himself in the game, taking 3 wickets in 4 overs and putting any hopes of a 200 plus score out of Williamstown reach. He was up and about as all 3 were bowled and it was great to see him get the rewards for some good aggressive bowling. Dizzy came back on at the end with myself, where he picked up his 2nd wicket. We were hoping to keep them under 170, but with some clean striking in the last over, they got up to 8/184.
From where they were at drinks to end of their innings, I thought it was a good fightback but still a lot of rusty bowling, which should fix up as season moves on. 30 extras did not help us either with their score or keeping the game running on time.
Bowling figures had Jesse 3-14 from 4, Dizzy 2-43 from 8, Jackson 1-44 off 6.
Both myself (0-18 from 8) and Rich (0-25 from 8) were unlucky not to get a wicket, but I thought we did well in restricting their scoring when we were on.
Confident of getting the runs, but not cocky, we sent our now regular openers in Mic and Jesse out to open the innings and after the normal watchful start, Mic started to pick runs off as we got to the 9th over where Jesse was dismissed with score now 1-31.
Robbie got a good one and we were 2-49 after 12 and them Johnny couldn’t get going and we were now 3-66 after 15. Rhys was next in and hung around for a little bit, with a very nice drive, he also got a good ball, part of learning to play on turf, and we now were 4-85 after 18.
Was good to have the younger batters follow each other as I like the idea of them batting with a senior player and you don’t see many better to bat with than Mic. I thank him greatly for the work he has been putting in as an on field batting coach with the younger players, it is invaluable for their development.
This now had Jackson coming out for his first bat for the club and he did so with aplomb, getting to drinks with us 4-95ish and starting to lean in on Williamstown’s bowlers after the 2 openers had bowled well.
With both Mic and Jackson settling in to the job at hand, quickly building a good partnership, Mic was able to post his 50 and we were in a strong position. They were able to post a 50 partnership as well and looked to be able to finish the game off themselves when Mic was dismissed for 79 after another entertaining innings. So at the 29th over mark, we were 5-141 with Micheal S now in, they went about ticking off the final runs to have us pass their score in the 37th over.
Jackson doing well with 47 not out and Michael on 14 not out.
Our score 5-188

Overall, no panic, we stayed calm, as said though, as a bowling group we need to tidy up the extras and loose balls but for the first game of the season, couldn’t be happier with the result and the way we did it.

Take on Strathmore at Cross Keys Reserve next game.

Go Spotty!!
Chris Beckett
4XI Captain