Sport
26 February, 2025
Change for mindset a key for Carter's century with the Horsham Saints
Dezi Carter scored 133 from 200 balls in round 13 of HCA A Grade.
Cricket
Murtoa
For Horsham Saints opening batter Dezi Carter, a century in round 13 of the A Grade competition came down to a change of mindset.
Carter scored 133 from 200 balls as he led the Saints to a total of 9/277 on Saturday, February 22.
"I found it quite good," Carter said.
"I hadn't had many scores this year, which had been quite disappointing."
However, against a bowling attack that featured Nic Ballagh and Shannon Reddie, Carter changed his mindset in the hot conditions.
"They're quite good bowlers [who are] consistently on the spot and they can swing it both ways," he said.
"So it's a little bit of a challenge early, but I made a conscious decision that I was going to be really positive, and bat with a lot of intent. I'm glad that paid off."
This was a change from the way that Carter, 17, had been playing earlier in the season.
"I was playing at balls away from my body, which I was leaving last year. So I went back to leaving them, but my strike rate was just down too much," Carter said.
"Because I wanted a big score I decided I just had to bat with more intent to put some pressure back on the bowlers.
"The way I was batting the last couple of weeks, I just didn't think that was going to be where I could find some big runs."
Carter had a delayed start to the 2024/25 season after he missed rounds 3-7, but it was not converting his starts which he found most frustrating.
It was his performance at the under-17 country week carnival in Warrnambool that set him up for the back half of the season.
Carter added 179 runs [fourth overall] for the carnival and led the averages [89.5] overall for the week.
"I tried to spend some time in the middle during country week, which got me back into form a little bit," he said.
Looking ahead, Carter will continue to hone his skills while moving into the WFNL season with Horsham.
"I will try and go to the nets and keep working hard," he said.
"That's one of the things I pride myself on is hard work, especially with my cricket. I'm just trying to out-work others in a way."
The Saints will look to defend its first innings total on day two at Murtoa Recreation Reserve on Saturday, March 1.