Under 17s
Day 1
Lost the toss and were sent in to bat on a green bowler friendly pitch. A solid start by Nic Campo 29(32) bit couldn't maintain any real partnerships until Tyler Johns cam to the crease. Tyler batted with a real intent to score taking on the field at every opportunity finishing with 41(82).
Fremantle all out for 147.
Day 2
With only 146 to defend, early wickets and scoreboard pressure were key. Jamie Richardson struck in his first over and kept the pressure on with extemely frugal bowling, finishing with 4/6 off 10 overs with 7 maidens. Gosnells couldn'tbuild any real partnerships with consistent wickets falling throughout the innings.
Gosnells all out for 90 ( 40.3 overs).
Under 15s
First game back after the Christmas break and the Port boys were chomping at the bit to take on Gosnells. Gosnells won the toss and showed their hand by putting us into bat, a clear strategy to take early wickets and try to contain us to a mild total. Well that back fired, with the Port lads posting 7/300 of our 50 overs!!
The boys all batted positively, executing the basics well, turning the strike over, running hard between wickets, being aggressive all day and defensive when required. Both Marley’s, Green and Hwight, made 60’s but it was Green who took charge from the beginning, to help set up the big total in a chanceless innings and by far his best for the club. Hwight also played really well through the middle stages and as it was with our last game against Joondalup, lots of smaller contributions with excellent strike rates, meant we didn’t waste balls and were able to post a huge total…that along with a well timed 51 from “Sundries” and 18 from “Penalty Runs”!
A Saturday/Sunday game first up after Christmas isn’t ideal but nevertheless the boys were very sharp and buoyant on Sunday morning. The opening bowlers got us off to a reasonable start with Kade Wack bowling a perfect line and length, there were plays and misses a plenty and as it is with cricket, sometimes you bowl so well that they can’t get an edge on it! This was certainly the case for Wack who bowled without luck but it was Sellahewa (2/14 off 5 overs) who came in and bowled 2 awesome Yorkers, the first to clean rip one of the openers and the second to trap their #3 LBW with a toe breaker (literally!).
As has been the case all season, Saxon was too good for the opposition and finished with 3/14 off 10 overs with 6 maidens. He looked like he was going to go straight through them but instead the opposition seemingly decided to bat for a draw! The boys tried countless plans to get Gosnells to plays shots but for some reason they closed up shop with about 25 overs to go, blocked most overs out and we just couldn’t take their last 2 wickets so they ended on 8/163 off 50 overs.
The boys stayed positive to the end, got another ‘W’ in season 2023/24 and sung the song loud and proud. They continue to impress, with the way they play their cricket and stick together, all at age 14 &15. We’ll be back on the track this week to get ready to take on Perth in the T20 this Saturday at Stevens and keep moving forward towards our season goal one week at a time!
Go Port!