The Too's suffered a
losing start to the season at the hands of West Bay two Saturdays ago. We lost
the toss (I still haven't won one as captain in two seasons, even when its not
my call) and were sent in to bat in overcast conditions. Overall it was a
disappointing batting performance with a slow run rate and lack of urgency shown
in the first 18 overs. After drinks the run rate picked up to a run a ball and
we managed to post a defendable total of 147. Highlight of the innings was
Bridges MoM and COTY wrapped into one in scoring 50 odd off about 100 balls
faced. Tim was the rock of the innings and without him we perhaps would not have
reached the score we did. Grover and Tim Hepburn again chimed in with a good
partnership at the death and Gordon and Texas also helped move the run-rate
along in the middle overs. We really do need to look to score more runs when the
field is inside the circle and as Michael Bevan would do, have a few key shots
that you can play that you know you can get a single from, even when you're not
in the best knick. It was just a passable batting performance and gives us
something to build on.
In the field we seemed
to lack a little energy for the first 10 or so overs, perhaps a particularly
tasty curried goat lunch may have had something to do with it. Perhaps our
bowlers were a little rusty but we took a while to get in our groove. Sarasota
O'Connor (note reference to one's self in the third person) bowled first change
and commenced with 5 leg-side wide before the batsman got bored and played at
another one down the leg-side and got some glove it. He was smartly taken behind
by Joe Margison who performed admirably on debut. Dave McGrath bowled superbly
to pick up two wickets and could have had more with a little luck. Joe Margison
popped up again first ball after drinks to snare a vital wicket with a brilliant
leg-side stumping off the express pace of Tim Hepburn. Grover's comeback as a
bowler was one to be proud of and bodes well for the rest of season - deception
in the air was a key strength although we are still yet to see the much
hyped new mystery ball, the "Dead-Beat". Saving it for later in the season
perhaps?
All in all it was a good
performance for the first game of the season, but we have plenty of areas to
improve on. Our intensity for one, keeping down extras (the opposition gave away
5 extras to our 20 odd which is a lot when we needed about 20 more runs - I take
a lot of blame for this) and keeping the run rate at around 5-6 runs per over
from the start and continuing to build on it throughout the innings
are all areas we need to work
on.