15s
Round 6 was a T20 against Willetton, we won the toss and elected to bowl. Willetton's openers batted smart, looking for singles and putting away the bad balls when they came. One opener in particular was the difference, especially when we gave him 3 pretty easy chances, the first in his 40's and he ended with 78 (71). A very uncharacteristic fielding performance by the team with more dropped catches and fumbles galore allowed Willetton to post a very competitive 127.
The talk at the change was positive with our normal T20 team goal of 120 meaning we would only need an extra 8 runs for the win. Our openers started a little slow and seeing the run rate quickly start to climb, meant a couple of rash shots saw the back of them. Being so far behind the rate at the 1/2 way mark was always going to be tough but a targeted approach to get the win was hatched out. Hwight and Cardaci batted perfectly to the plan, bravely putting fielders under extra pressure with their running between wickets and suddenly we were back in with a better chance. Hwight 35 (40) and Cardaci 21 (20) did what they could but unfortunately got out as they were hitting their straps. Then Saxon 10 (9) and Wood 16 (14) came in and tried their best to get us across the line but we fell 15 runs short on 112 off our 20 overs.
Dropped Catches Lose Matches...it's as simple as that!
We'll still take 5-1 as a start to any season. Hopefully the boys will use the defeat as a learning experience and we'll be back better and stronger against Joondalup this week.
17s
T20
17's lost the toss and were asked to field first, Willetton got away to a solid start in the powerplay but were able to break through to take the first wicket in the 5th over. Willetton batted very well to compile an almost risk free and mature innings of 4/122.
Things didn't start well for the Freo boys losing both openers early .From there it was unfortunately a steady procession of wickets to fall before a bit of steady in the middle order saw us needing 59 off 49 balls, however we just couldn't string together another partnership. All out for 81.