Stratford skipper calls for ‘big improvements’

STRATFORD skipper Mike Brown admits “big improvements” are required if the Panthers are to win promotion this summer.

Brown’s men crashed to a disappointing nine-run defeat to Brewood in a low scoring match at Swan’s Nest Lane on Saturday.

The result saw Stratford slip down to fifth in Birmingham Premier League Division Three and the skipper says his team have to up their game in all departments if they are to stand a chance of an instant return to Division Two.

“It’s really not promotion winning form,” Brown admitted.

“Eight games in and we’ve only won four, it’s not the form we want. We are at least lucky that everyone seems to be beating everyone, so we’re still in touch and we know that one win against the sides around you will put you in the mix.

“Everybody talks about promotion but we have got to improve in all three departments.

“We need to be more consistent — we can’t let the bowling get us out of jail one week and the batting the next week

“It could, of course, be worse. We have been competing, but if we could just improve by five or ten per cent in each department then I think we’ll go on a bit of a run.”

Despite being asked to field first in stifling conditions, the Panthers battled hard to dismiss the away side for 137.

This was a great result, considering at one stage Brewood were 46-0.

Once again, the impressive Adam Bayliss shone with the ball, recording his third five for this season.

Again he bowled with good pace, just moving the ball enough to trouble the batsmen to record the superb figures of 12-4-17-5.

Bayliss was backed up by Perry Derrick, who bowled with much greater consistency to take 3-21, Brown (2-63) took the first two wickets to fall.

Despite this display, Stratford still felt that in reality they had been poor in the field, with a couple of dropped catches and a number of misfields ultimately proving costly.

Stratford started their chase knowing they had 63 overs to reach 138.

Yet a combination of great bowling and questionable shot selection saw the home side fall to 2-2 then 32-4.

The returning Jake Salmon (45) and Chris Whelan (26) then put together a much-needed half century stand, taking a particular liking to the two left arm spinners. However, the game changed again when South African Wade Lezar was brought back into the attack.

He dismissed both Whelan and Salmon to complete his five for, yet wasn’t done here as in dismissing Derrick and Charlie Blake, Stratford had lost four wickets for eight runs and were in trouble again, with Lezar taking seven of the eight wickets to fall.

At 94-8, the Panthers still had a sniff with Chris Calcott and Adrian Witts at the crease. These two batted sensibly, running hard and finding the boundary to tick down the required runs.

They took the score to 128 before Witts fell, caught behind. Brown soon followed to leave Calcott stranded on 19 not out and Stratford nine runs short.

The Panthers are back in league action this Saturday when they travel to league leaders Lichfield.

Team: John Price, Rob West, David Bailey, Chris Whelan, Adam Bayliss, Jake Salmon, Perry Derrick, Anthony Pratley, Chris Calcott, Adrian Witts, Mike Brown (c).