Premier Cricket: New Casey South Melbourne batter Matt Calder steered the Swans in ‘gritty’ knock

Casey South Melbourne’s off-season recruit played a steadying hand on Saturday, trading his characteristically big shots for a “mature” and level-headed innings.

Matt Calder batting for his old side Mosman. (AAP IMAGE / Robert Pozo)

He “weathered the storm” amid difficult conditions.

Casey South Melbourne recruit Matt Calder played a telling hand on Saturday to give his side a shot at keeping its undefeated record in tact.

The Swans were sent in by Richmond and failed to capitalise on several starts with the bat.

Entering at 4-122, Calder batted with maturity and assurance to score 74 of the Swans’ next 126 runs.

Calder, who hit 64 off 51 balls and 103no off 54 last summer, fought his Swans to 248 on the difficult Central Reserve wicket.

Swans’ skipper Luke Shelton said Calder answered the team’s call by playing a different role.

“He played a very unlike Matt innings which was good, we needed him to dig in and play a different role,” Shelton said.

“It was a pretty tricky wicket, both sides would’ve liked to bowl, there was enough there where you never felt in on it.

“There was a bit of swing, bit of seam and they had good plans which made it hard to score.

“He came in at a pretty difficult time and weathered the storm, they were probably expecting Matt to play like Matt and the longer that went on they saw he was in a grind.

“He was mature, kept a level head and I think it will hold him in good stead in the white-ball stuff which we know is his strength.”

Matt Calder walks off after his blazing century last summer. Picture: Will Carr.

Things seemingly weren’t going the Swans’ way before Calder strode to the creases.

Ruwantha Kellapotha (4) was run out after a straight drive from teammate Ashley Chandrasinghe (24) deflected off the bowler and onto the stumps.

Shelton looked at that dismissal and the choice of starts with the bat as a positive however, as the Swans were still able to bat the day and produce a defendable score.

“It did feel like that at times, it felt like we would start to get a partnership and get on top and then something like that would happen,” he said.

“We probably haven’t been batting as well as we would’ve liked throughout the season, we’ve sort of just been doing enough with individuals doing good things.

“While that was one of our lowest scores of the year, I felt like it was probably one of our more gritty batting performances we’ve had in a while.

“Things weren’t easy for us but we found a way to fight through it – 250 isn’t massive but it’s something to bowl to.

“I think the good sign is a lot of our guys are hitting the ball really well, Jackson Isakka is hitting the ball really well but he has got himself out three times.”

Swan Daud Malik plays a hook shot. Picture: Andrew Batsch

The Swans have posted 210, 310 and 248 in their past three red-ball innings without a centurion.

Shelton thinks the “icing on the cake” isn’t far away for a few of his batters.

“I think it’s been a bit of a tale of our year to date, we’ve had no hundreds but guys get good scores between 30 and 70 this season,” he said.

“Behind closed doors we know that’s our expectation with these guys and ourselves that when we get ourselves in that one or two pushes on to go all the way.

“From a positive point of view that’s something to build on, it’s not like batters aren’t getting any runs at all.

“Everyone is looking good in their own right, they know they just need to keep going, as a collective we’re all going pretty well we’re just not putting the icing on the cake.”