By RUSSELL BENNETT
WGCA PREMIER DIVISION
REVIEW – ROUND 6 (DAY 1)
TOORADIN v UPPER BEACONSFIELD
THE weather was sensational for cricket on Saturday, but it took a perfect storm of circumstances for two of Tooradin’s finest to produce something truly special.
Reigning Terry Stephenson Medallist Aaron Avery hadn’t exactly been out of touch with the willow this season, but he’d been finding ways of getting out.
On the other hand, great mate and fellow league gun Cal O’Hare was only playing his second Premier game of the season since returning from a knee reconstruction.
They each had their own motivation for standing up to be counted; for putting on a dominant display to remind anyone who’d somehow forgotten just how brilliant they are.
And on Saturday at Tooradin Recreation Reserve, everything came together – from 2/26 and a shaky 3/62, the two combined for a 223-run stand – the biggest in Premier since the 246 put on by Pakenham pair Chris Smith and Jason Williams, also against Upper Beaconsfield, in Round 4 last season.
It almost seemed as though with every run Avery and O’Hare scored, they fired a warning shot across the bow of the likes of fellow top-flight powerhouses Kooweerup and Cardinia.
Avery produced his highest ever score – 174 not out – as he guided the Gulls to 5/378 after their 80 overs, while O’Hare (98) fell just shy of a well-deserved ton.
Avery’s truly was an innings that had to be seen to be believed. He was dropped on 20 but it almost doesn’t seem fair to call that a chance gone begging – with Maroons keeper Jake Serong diving at full stretch to his right to try and snare an absolute screamer.
But from that point on, Avery had the Midas touch. He was ruthless on anything over-pitched – with a series of brilliant cover and off-drives – but he was also just as damaging on anything short.
The Maroons’ bowlers had all sorts of issues with their line and length, but any attack would look ineffective against Avery and O’Hare when they’re settled and firing. The issue was that they just weren’t bowling to their fields – with long-on and long-off in place, for example, they bowled far too short for long periods.
O’Hare took particular advantage – brutal with his cross-bat shots off the back foot but just as strong off his pads to anything full.
“It was just great to see them making runs,” said Tooradin skipper Tom Hussey.
“Azz (Avery) was definitely a man on a mission, and with Cal it’s just good to have him back.
“He’s still finding his way (with his knee), but he really opened his shoulders and went for his shots.”
Hussey said he expected Saturday’s batting performance could well kick-start both Avery’s and O’Hare’s seasons.
“We were in a similar position to the one we were in last week – around 3/100 – but then we only made around 190 and we really went on with it on Saturday” he said.
“We just watched those guys (Avery and O’Hare) take on the attack.
“Azz loves hitting right through the ball but I thought the stroke-play from both of the boys was really smart.
“They just kept picking up the ones and turning the strike over.
“We didn’t do that enough against Koowee (last round) and we let their bowlers find their rhythm.”
Hussey said it was a key for his side to bat the full 80 overs, adding: “whenever we can do that, I’d back our bowlers any day”.
Ross Douglas also continued to impress with a quick-fire 49 not out to push his side’s total well past 350, but the Seagulls are under no illusions. It’s crucial they finish off their work with the bat with just as convincing a performance this week with the ball.
“We want to put a whole performance together,” Hussey said.
“We know we’ve got 380-odd on the board.
“The game isn’t won but we feel confident.
“We’ve just got to heap the pressure on right from the start this week.
“For them to chase that total they’re going to have to be scoring straight away.”
Ominously, the Gulls still have plenty of improvement to come – both with bat and ball.
O’Hare is still a little while off bowling and looked physically spent as he walked off the ground after his innings on Saturday, while the likes of Bodie Brown (hamstring) are still getting back to 100 per cent.
“This is probably the tightest (Premier) competition I’ve seen in my time at the club,” Hussey said, knowing his third-placed side has key back-to-back clashes with the seventh-placed Pakenham to come over the next two rounds.
“Last year we played our best cricket at the start of the season and the wheels fell off by the end.
“We’re all about improvement from week to week right now.”
MERINDA PARK v CARDINIA
AS IS the feeling of calm at Donnelly Reserve at this point of the season, the Merinda Park boys are content with restricting the top-of-the-ladder Cardinia to 8/231 on the first day’s play of their clash.
The Cobras went into the game without two of their most influential players – star all-rounders Jess Mathers and Anthony Craddock – but their two most experienced bowlers stepped up to the plate, bowling 42 tight overs in the hot and windy conditions to keep the rampaging Bulls to a manageable total to chase.
Jamie Smith and Craig Boswell are closer to 40-years-old than 30 but they conceded just 96 runs between them, taking five wickets in the process after Cardinia won the toss and elected to bat.
Seven Bulls batsmen got starts with the willow but player-coach Simon Parrott (48 not out) and opener Daniel Glen (40) were the only two to pass 35.
After a 60-plus run opening stand between Glen and Daniel Strahan (33) it seemed the Bulls were on target for a total well in excess of 300.
“At the end of the day, we’re pleased with keeping them to 231,” said Smith, who removed each of Cardinia’s top four batsmen.
“They looked like getting 330 at one stage after their openers set a really good platform.
“They were really hot conditions out there and we didn’t do ourselves any favours by dropping a lot of catches, but I thought our bowling and our ground fielding were both really good.”
The scenario at the halfway mark for the Cobras is a simple one, with Smith adding: “At 230-odd on the board, I think we’ll take that because if we bat the full 80 overs we’ll win.
“They have to bowl us out, but that said their bowling has been sensational – particularly (Dean) Henwood.”
Cobras skipper Danny Diwell – himself carrying a niggle – only used four bowlers on Saturday – Boswell, Smith, Grant Pearson and Jason Pongracic but they each played their role.
Smith (4/62 from 24 overs) admitted it had “been a while” since he bowled 20-plus overs in an innings, adding: “I’ve been hampered by a shoulder injury pretty much since I came to Merinda Park, but physically I feel great now – as good as I have in a long time.”
Both he and Boswell stood tall in the warm and blustery conditions on Saturday, with the spin of all-rounder Pongracic (3/114) also adding 29 overs.
“Jason did a mighty job bowling into the wind for us,” Smith said.
“Just going by the figures it looks like he went for a few but they were really tough conditions out there.”
The Cobras will be wary of losing early wickets in their chase this week given they’re without two of their most influential batsmen.
“We’ve got some in-form batsmen in the side and Peter Jessop has come in fresh off 65 in the twos so he’ll do a job for us as well,” Smith said.
“Our aim is to play smart cricket… their bowlers won’t drop their heads if things don’t go their way – we know that – but there’s heaps of belief in our group.
“We love playing cricket together and the attitude of the boys is fantastic… we stick together on and off the field.”
Smith reserved special praise for young Caleb Boswell, who stepped in to the wicket-keeping breach for their side on Saturday.
“He did a really good job for us (filling in for Craddock),” Smith said.
“He’s as good a young fielder as you’d see and he’s very versatile, so it’s not a huge surprise to see him do well with the gloves on.”
EMERALD v PAKENHAM
WITH the Bombers going strong at 3/160 at one stage on Saturday and danger man AJ Walker (77) at the crease, Lions’ skipper Jason Williams admits he was “starting to stress a bit”.
In a brutally tough season, the clash between the two sides is a must-win for Pakenham, which still only has the one victory on the board so far this season.
But the Bombers stumbled, and spectacularly – losing six wickets for just three runs at one stage before being bowled out for 194 in the 64th over.
There’s long been a suggestion that if a bowling side can remove Walker and expose Emerald’s middle and lower orders, a collapse could be on the cards and Saturday proved it.
“On a small ground (Haileybury), I was happy with anything under 200,” Williams said in the wake of the first day’s play.
“We just have to try to bat the overs this week – we don’t need to do anything drastic.”
But that could be easier said than done for the Lions, who’ve had more than their fair share of middle-order batting issues to deal with.
Couple that with the fact that Emerald’s attack is yet to concede 200 runs in an innings this season, and this Saturday looms as an absolute belter.
“We’ve had it in our minds that we haven’t batted for 80 overs yet this season,” Williams said.
“Even at training it’s just been about batting time.
“We can just wait for the bad balls (on Saturday).”
Williams claimed 5/41 in 17 overs on day one and together with left-arm seamer Jack Ryan (3/39) was a real difference-maker with the ball.
“Jack bowled a bit fuller this week and he was rewarded for it,” Williams said, with Ryan unlucky not to walk away with an even bigger bag of wickets.
Looking ahead to this week, there aren’t any excuses. The Lions survived the final 13 overs of day one unscathed and will resume on 0/31 with Chris Smith (11) and James Vela (13) at the crease, and regular opener Russ Lehman still yet to bat.
“Russ was a bit buggered after bowling so he didn’t open, and Jimmy had batted in the top three for Frankston and had craved his opportunity up the order for us,” Williams said.
With the likes of Greg Interlandi, Josh Gonzalez, and Sam Webster all making runs for the Sub-District side, no one is safe in the Premier middle-order.
There’s plenty of depth in the club with both bat and ball, which can only be a good thing.
“We’ve got a lot of time to bat this Saturday so we just need to be smart about it,” Williams said.
There’s the chance that Emerald’s bowlers might bowl short of a length and tempt the Lions to try and hit out over the short boundaries square of the wicket, but the Lions skipper added: “I’ll be telling our blokes to bat like they’re at any other ground.“We’ll play our normal shots.”
KOOWEERUP v BEACONSFIELD
IN the final game of the round Kooweerup is facing a tricky chase on day two to secure the points at the secondary college against Beaconsfield (186).
The Demons won the toss and sent the Tigers in as, by mainstay Matt Davey’s own admission, they thought they were a chance to run through them.
“It was looking pretty good early on but they had a good partnership going in the middle, which we couldn’t really break,” Davey said.
“We didn’t bowl that well overall – we were either too short or too full.
“There’s a new wicket out there and if you hit that right length the ball does a bit but we couldn’t do that, which was a bit disappointing.”
Chris O’Hara (4/29) and John Bright (3/45) were both super economical on Saturday from their 29 combined overs, but Tigers opener Angus Bunnell (35) and experienced former Kooweerup seamer Richard Gault (34) produced handy knocks while first-gamer Shameera Weerasinghe (from Parkfield in the DDCA) made an instant impact with his 83.
The new Demons’ opening combination of skipper Michael Giles (13) and young Cody Miller (2) will resume on Saturday at 0/16.
