Mature beyond their years: Under 12s impress despite finals loss

This was due both to the improvement they showed in recent weeks, and the maturity with which they handled a loss in the biggest match of the season.

Up against Illawarra in the Greater Illawarra Cricket Zone Under 12 Male Inter Association grand final, the HDCA team came in as the underdog for a number of reasons, foremost among which was their youth (a number of the players were well under the age limit of 12), and inexperience in 40-over games.

After a 110-run loss in the first clash between the two sides on December 5, HDCA coach Paddy Moylan knew their chances of victory were slim.

Having won the toss and elected to bat first on Sunday at Wollongong's Wiseman Park, Illawarra compiled 6-187 as the HDCA bowlers struggled to make the early inroad they knew they needed.

"We dropped three catches today, which is much better [than our fielding efforts in the earlier games], but we just didn't get those couple of early wickets," Moylan said.

"We wanted to have them 3-50 or so then have a go at them with the legspinner, but he had to get the first three wickets which isn't really his role."

The young leggie, James Moylan, bowled superbly to take 3-28 from his eight overs, but he could not break the back of Illawarra's strong batting lineup.

Though it quickly became clear during the second innings that the HDCA batters were unlikely to make the required runs, the players refused to throw away their wickets and instead decided to hunker down and bat out the overs.

Cameron Grace (35), Hugh Hanrahan (18 not out), and Oliver Lach-Newinsky (10 not out) did the bulk of the work for HDCA, and saw the side to 3-90 from their 40 overs. This obdurate batting, Moylan said, represented a huge step forward for the players.

"The fact that they've learned to appreciate and understand how much time they've got [is impressive]," he said.

"As time goes on, they've been able to that, and that's what we encouraged them to do, as well as not play silly shots.

"When we first played Illawarra, they've got a couple of good spinners and some of our kids marched out like David Warner and tried to hit it for six. Of course they got stumped, but today those same kids were not out and played those spinners for quite a while.

"That's quite dramatic improvement in only a few weeks."

This improvement was even noted by the Illawarra coaches, who said that the HDCA boys had provided their toughest game of the competition.

"The Illawarra were the best team in the competition, and they said we were clearly second," Moylan said.

"They were amazed with the improvement they saw."

But the most pleasing part for the coach was not the feedback from his Illawarra counterparts, but the reaction of his players after the loss.

Though many of them are young for the division, they took the result with grace and focused on the positive aspects of their performance.

"It was impressive, actually," Moylan said.

"They were all positive, and they could all see the scoreboard so they knew where it was heading. They clapped our two not-out batters off and congratulated the other team's players."

The support shown between the HDCA players, he added, was in large developed by the barbecues that were held by some of the parents after each game during the competition.

"I think that helped them to get that camaraderie going," Moylan said.

"Some of them didn't know each other to begin with, but they got closer with each barbecue. None of the other teams did that, it was just a Highlands thing that's been done for them, and I think that's been a nice touch to help build that unity."

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