Jayde Herrick was one of the few Casey-South Melbourne players who could hold their head high in its 104run defeat to Melbourne at Casey Fields on Saturday. 23728 Picture: Luke Plummer.By Marc McGowan
DIABOLICAL. Insipid. Pitiful.
There are few other ways to describe Casey-South Melbourne’s weekend batting performance.
Victorian Premier Cricket powerhouse Melbourne dismissed the Swans for 88 at Casey Fields on Saturday – the second time in four innings this season that Casey-South Melbourne has managed less than 100.
The Swans’ 10th wicket pairing of Matthew Hawking and Ash Perera spent longer at the crease – 37 balls – than all but one of Casey-South Melbourne’s partnerships.
The embarrassing batting display ruined a strong bowling effort which saw the Swans restrict the Demons to 192, including just 41 runs from their final 10 overs.
Opener Andrew Kent (75 runs off 119 balls) anchored Melbourne’s innings with his second-straight half-century but Casey-South Melbourne’s bowlers – Jayde Herrick (2/33 from 10 overs) in particular – did well to prevent his team-mates from following suit.
Casey-South Melbourne coach Mark Ridgway elevated all-rounder Clive Rose to the top of the order to try to solve its opening woes.
But the experiment failed when Rose became the first of former Australian bowler Adam Dale’s five victims.
The 39-year-old swing king finished with the highly impressive figures of 5/10 from 10 virtuoso overs.
Dale was on a hat-trick at one stage but number-11 batsman Perera survived the third delivery.
The Swans fell to 4/33 in the 16th over, leaving Herrick (21 off 51) and captain Craig Entwistle (20 off 49) to pick up the pieces.
They steered their team to 54 before Michael Hill and Kent combined to run out Entwistle, who looked in good touch, after the batsman had backed up a long way and slipped trying to scurry back to his crease.
Not one other Casey-South Melbourne batsman reached double figures from then on.
Left-arm chinaman bowler Sean Sturrock (2/16 from nine), a Victorian under-19 representative last season, joined captain-coach Dale as the Demons’ chief destroyers.
Ridgway, who replaced former mentor John Hayes this season, said he knew the Swans’ coaching position was going to be a difficult one.
“I always knew there would be ups and downs and hurdles along the way,” Ridgway said.
“Everyone wants to win every game but we do have a four-year strategic plan and the whole club knew there would be difficulties in respect to results this season.
“We have a four-year plan and we hope to be club champions and premiers, etcetera.
“It’s certainly frustrating because I’ve come from a winning culture (at St Kilda) and maybe I’ve had too many expectations for players who are not up to the standard yet.”
Ridgway did praise his bowlers and felt they had given his team a realistic hope of victory.
“Keeping Melbourne to 190 in a one-dayer and only 41 off its last 10 was a tremendous effort but the batsmen are not heeding the advice of the coaching staff,” he said.
“Our bowling has been pretty good – it’s been a big improvement on the past – but our batsmen have been falling into some old traps and tricks.
“We needed to bat through the innings and that message was lost on Saturday.”
Ridgway has been disappointed with Tim Dale’s output since he top-scored with 42 in round one, saying he has been “getting out like a hack”.
Casey-South Melbourne will seek its first win of the season against Prahran at Toorak Park on Saturday from 11am.
