LOCAL cricket reached a crescendo on Saturday, with a series of nail-biting encounters in the Sale-Maffra Cricket Association.
While Round 9 was anticipated to be the most evenly-matched week of the First Grade competition, two of the games were closer than anybody, including this reporter, could have predicted.
Even conditions found the appropriate balance – warm, dry air favoured the batsmen, whereas the green-tinged pitches and a strong, frequent breeze handed an advantage to the bowlers.
Stratford v Collegians
TOP spot on the First XI ladder was reclaimed by the narrowest of margins at Stratford Recreation Reserve, where the home side emerged victorious by just a single run.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, the Redbacks looked in trouble early, losing four wickets within the first 10 overs for just 38 runs.
Dean Devisser and captain Jack Rietschel helped salvage the innings, surviving the next 15 overs to add another 55 runs to Stratford’s total.
Their partnership was broken in the 26th over with the stumping of Rietschel, which triggered a minor collapse of the middle and lower order. Another four batsmen went out in the following six overs.
At this point, Stratford was in danger again with the scoreboard reading 9/108.
Ethan Albrecht and Sam Anstee held on for a 10 wicket partnership of 27, coming to a close when Albrecht was bowled for 19 in the second-to-last over of the innings.
Their final score of 135 was the lowest of the season thus far for a team batting first.
Stuart Anderson inflicted much of the damage with the ball, finishing his eight overs with 5/10 including three maidens; Nathan Whitford was next-best with 3/22.
In the follow-up innings, runs and wickets were traded at a near-equal rate, sending the clash down to the wire.
It all came to a head during the final ball of the 39th over when, with just two runs needed for victory, Collegians’ 10th and final wicket fell, handing the win to Stratford.
After dominating with the ball, Anderson was also the highest-scorer for Collegians with 32 not out.
Seb Pendergast finished the day with figures of 4/33, while Rietschel and Jack Tatterson collected two scalps each for the Redbacks.
Photo: Tom Parry
Rosedale-Kilmany v Sale
THE gap between third and fourth on the ladder narrowed following events at Rosedale Recreation Reserve.
In a complete reversal of their Sale Oval clash in Round 5, Rosedale-Kilmany triumphed over the Swans in a tight, low-scoring affair.
Sale won the toss, batted first and almost immediately benefitted from the decision, with the Warriors’ Nathan Hangan bowling three wides in the first over of the innings.
That fortune soon dissipated, as opener Hayden Glover was caught behind for a duck in the following over, and Coenie Nel bowled for three soon after.
This turned out to be a familiar narrative in Sale’s innings – just three of their batsman made a score greater than 10, with the rest departing for single digits.
Runs were hard to come by, and partnerships difficult to forge, with Ben Jones and Daniel Padula the only pair to form any semblance of a fightback.
They made 27 in their fifth wicket stand, ending when Jones was caught for 20 – the highest score of any Swan.
Next best was Padula who toiled hard for his 19, coming from 71 balls after spending nearly two hours at the crease.
Hangan recovered from his first over to devastate with the ball, taking 3/16 with three maidens; Brad Scott, Bailey Reid and captain Isaac Love took two wickets each.
Through their efforts, the Warriors were able to bowl Sale out for 85 in the 33rd over.
Rosedale-Kilmany’s chase was slow but steady, accumulating 24 runs for the first wicket and another 27 added in the second, both within 14 overs.
A slight scare was had toward the midway point of their innings, when three batsmen were lost within just five balls, but the side soon settled again under the stewardship of Jay Diamond and Colin Freshwater.
The latter was the last of RK’s men to fall, trapped in front of his stumps for 11.
Love hit the winning runs in the 26th over.
With this victory, the Warriors are now equal on points with Sale, but remain in fourth place due to being behind on percentage by the narrowest of margins – a figure of 0.0071 is all that stands between them.
Maffra v Bundalaguah
NOTHING could separate the teams at Cameron Sporting Complex, so much so that their battle resulted in a tie – a rare result for any cricket match.
Bundalaguah elected to bat first and got off to a flyer, making 29 runs in the first six overs.
Maffra made a breakthrough in the very next over, with Bull’s captain Jason Langshaw caught for 17.
More wickets fell five overs later, with Steve Spoljaric, Kshitiz Sharma and Nick French all lost in quick succession – the latter run out for a golden duck (not a diamond, as he did face a ball).
Then, just before the drinks break, the Bulls lost their danger man, Lachlan Wrigglesworth, who went out leg before to Ben Durrant on 27.
Although James Read and Chris Smart provided some resistance, no other batter could replicate the performance of Wrigglesworth, with Bundy losing all their wickets by the 34th over for 103.
In his 200th game, Josh Davis – making just his third appearance for Maffra this season – took 3/13 off seven overs.
The Eagles’ start was not as strong as Bundy’s, with the opening Bens – Sly and Harrington – making six runs before the former was bowled in the third over.
Harrington made a stand with coach Lee Hopkins over the next four overs, which transpired as the most fruitful partnership of Maffra’s innings.
Sadly, the pair made just 24 runs before Harrington was caught for eight.
At the halfway point, Maffra was 5/54.
Things began to look up for the Eagles in the 22nd over, when Davis and Miller Eastham added 11 runs off the bowling of Gayashan Munasinghe, only for both men to lose their wickets immediately after.
The tail-enders, led by Dylan Freitag, hung on to be within nine runs of victory by the 35th over, despite having just one wicket in hand.
Maffra was still in contention by the final over, having whittled the deficit down to just one run.
Youngster Hamish Anderson was given the unenviable task of defending Bundy’s razor-thin margin.
His first ball was a dot to Freitag, his second also a dot.
On his third delivery, Freitag managed a single.
Scores were now dead-even, and Hennig only had to make one run to secure the win for Maffra.
Easier said than done – Anderson’s fourth ball was a dot, as was his fifth.
On the final ball, in a last-gasp effort to clinch the game, the batsmen tried for a single, only for Freitag to be run out by a throw from Spoljaric in the field.
Thus, a tied game was declared.
Some would argue that the Bulls’ wayward bowling is what cost them the win – they conceded 16 wides across the innings.
Hayden Wrigglesworth was Bundy’s best with 4/16 off eight overs, followed by Sharma with 3/18.
One benefit of the result is that both teams earned a share of points, receiving three each.
On the downside, their chances of clawing back into the top four are diminishing, with Bundy and Maffra sitting 13 points and 15 points, respectively, behind fourth-placed Rosedale-Kilmany.
Boisdale-Briagolong v Longford
A WOODEN spoon is no longer a certainty for the Saints, who recorded their first win of the season at Briagolong Recreation Reserve.
Fittingly, their success came against Longford, the very same side that relegated them to the bottom of the ladder back in Round 5.
The home side opted to bat first and had a rocky start, losing their openers within the first three overs and Toby Leeds in the fourth.
Proceedings smoothed thanks to Dylan Bolton and Liam Hurst, who combined for 53 runs in their fourth wicket stand.
Both men were lost before the innings break, leaving the score 5/66.
Thankfully, another solid partnership was formed between Michael Roberts and Stephen Noble, the pair adding 39 runs to the Saints’ total.
Then came another stand, this one seeing Noble paired with Jonathon Outhart for 45 runs during the eighth wicket.
Boisdale-Briagolong saw through the full 40 overs with a total of 154, with one wicket to spare.
Noble finished the innings unbeaten on 54, becoming just the second Saint to make a half-century this season.
Rupinder Sidhu was Longford’s chief wicket-taker, but also their costliest, conceding 43 runs across his eight overs.
Opener Andrew Tyson led the chase for the Lizards, but without much help from his batting partners – all were lost for single figures within 12 overs, resulting in a precarious score of 5/35.
Tyson eventually found an equal in his captain, Lachlan Floyd, together amassing 47 runs within 14 overs.
Their collaboration ended when Tyson was caught for 48; by that point, Longford was still 72 runs short of their target.
The captain’s presence at the crease endured for the remainder of the innings, but not so his team-mates, who all fell cheaply to see the Lizards all out for 128 in the 39th over.
Floyd was left stranded on 42, with Sidhu being the only other player to reach double-figures; 10 runs, made in 14 balls late in the innings.
The result sees Boisdale-Briagolong jump to seventh on the ladder, courtesy of a superior percentage.
On a side note, this game had the tidiest bowling of any first grade contest, with just 11 extras conceded across two innings and zero no balls from either side.
