By Marcus Uhe
While the cricket season may only be four rounds old, Mark Cooper’s Beaconsfield is already putting lessons into place from the opening weeks.
Cooper and his Tigers entered the season with a goal and a mantra of being competitive, and early results show they are well-and-truly meeting that benchmark, following a thumping 133-run win over Narre South in round four.
During the batting innings the week prior, the Tigers fell to 7/161 in the 65th over when Jeevan Mendis got the better of Kevin Seth.
The innings could have fallen in a heap if not for a defiant 75-run stand between Trishane De Silva and Michael Dunstan to see the Tigers through to stumps with a total of 7/236.
Cooper said the resilience the two showed was “huge” in the context of the match and had a two-fold effect on how the Tigers approached the defence on Saturday.
“Rather than us giving them overs (at the end of day one) it allowed us to accelerate towards the end and it gave us a pretty good platform for us today to be attacking, rather than a bit of both,” Cooper said.
“The running between wickets was really good and they showed good intent, I was really proud of their efforts.”
Their ability to bat time and absorb pressure was in stark contrast to round two’s contest against Berwick; the Tigers’ introduction to Turf 1 cricket, when a top-order collapse left them reeling at 7/54 shortly before play was abandoned.
There were signs of improvement against the quality of Buckley Ridges the match prior, but being dismissed for 128 in just the 67th over will not win too many games of cricket.
“We had to bat pretty tough last week for a long period of time and soak it up,” Cooper said.
“Against Berwick we lost 5/3 and we didn’t do that last week.
“If we had have lost 5/3 last week we probably would have made 140 and it’s a different scenario at the end.
“We’re learning all the time but we know not to get ahead of ourselves because there’s always quality cricketers waiting around the corner.
“It’s a good stepping stone for us but there’s still a lot to learn.
“I think we go North Dandenong and then Springvale South the week after, and both teams played finals.
“We know that we’re not there yet and we know that we’ve got a long way to go.”
