Highton captain Nathan McCoach takes 4-fa in GCA2 win as Modewarre import Ben Clarke hits maiden GCA3 century
Highton captain Nathan McCoach has credited his side’s early GCA2 form to a number of contributors, as a UK import played a starring role in his GCA3 club’s first win of the year.
Highton captain Nathan McCoach believes the Heat aren’t yet firing on all cylinders – a series of dropped catches a slight blemish on Saturday’s 109-run win over Geelong City Sharks.
But with their GCA2 campaign yet to hit the halfway mark, contributions from several individuals has McCosh confident the second-placed Heat is well placed after six rounds in their pursuit of a quick promotion back up to GCA1 following last season’s “disappointing” relegation.
“There is still a lot of improvement to go, we’re definitely not firing on all cylinders … but I think we need to be firing on all cylinders in March when finals are around,” McCoach said.
“We’re super happy, I think the whole team has kind of taken opportunities, it’s not the same players week-after-week and that’s probably what’s the best thing about our team is, we’re just a strong team across the board and we’ve got 11 role players.
“We’re confident, we are playing well but I still think we can improve in a few different ways, which is exciting.”
McCoach (4-32) led the way with the ball on day two of the Heat’s clash against the Sharks, helping dismiss the home side for 205 – well short of the Heat’s own declaration of 9-314 seven days earlier.
With the Heat bowling five overs to close day one, it was there McCoach took his first scalp of Angus Ford to see the Sharks start day two on 1-7.
The opening pace bowler called his side’s bowling partnerships “superb” in creating opportunity, though pointed to a series of dropped catches in the field as the most disappointing element of their performance.
“We pride ourselves on being one of the best fielding teams in the comp, and it was disappointing to drop those 5-6 opportunities,” McCoach said.
James Leather spurred the Sharks on late with a 63-ball 45 – adding to his 5-fa a week earlier – while Declan Mugavin (34), Darcy Pearson (37) and Jack Driver (39) all got starts but couldn’t capitalise on their long stints at the crease.
McCoach praised off-spinner Isaac Bird (2-21) and leg-spinner Brady Somers’ (2-57) work.
“They bowled pretty well in tandem – especially Isaac, he looked very dangerous and kind of bowling pretty tight and building lots of pressure and obviously got the reward for it,” McCoach said.
“They probably deserved more than two wickets each”.
It came after “superb” day one innings from Heat batsmen James Gillard and Lewis Campbell, who combined for a 153-run partnership to lay the foundation for the Heat’s big score.
Gillard put away a patient 164-ball 102 while Campbell went on the attack with a 82-ball 90, as McCoach came on late in the day for a quick 14-ball 22 to push the total past 300 – the skipper’s dismissal the catalyst to declare for 314 just shy of the 77-over mark.
McCoach said the total was a “long time coming”, with the Heat closest to the 300-mark back in a 50-over win over Alexander Thomson.
“We’re in a good place and we’re really confident in our batting line-up, and it was really good to finally break that 300-mark – we hadn’t done it this season,” he said.
“Both of them (Gillard and Campbell) batted superbly, we were kind of struggling at 4-94, and they just came together and batted well.
“Gill soaked up a fair bit of pressure – we had a bit of a change in our line-up and Gill went up to three, and he’s so experienced.
“And Lewy was kind of the counterpunch … he attacked the bowlers.”
Meanwhile, Bell Park duo Bailey Kelly and Mitch Trask have helped orchestrate a stunning Bell Post Hill batting collapse to keep the Dragons undefeated in GCA2.
With the Panthers chasing 241, a Rhys Burke century couldn’t save the home side from the later destruction of losing their final seven wickets for eight runs to close out the 40-run defeat.
Forming solid partnerships with Will Iles (49) and Matthew Reid (20), Burke (114 from 160) had the Panthers in a strong position before his dismissal on 3-193, before a 7-8 collapse spearheaded by Kelly (4-25) and Trask (4-37) brought the match to a premature close.
In other results, Leopold held off Torquay by three wickets, while Geelong West defeated Alexander Thomson by 118 runs.
Clarke century kickstarts Modewarre’s campaign
Englishman Ben Clarke described his first ton for Modewarre as “extra special” – revealing an unbeaten 104 was in fact his first career century.
The 24-year-old import played a starring role in the Warriors’ first win of the GCA3 season, their five wicket away win over last year’s grand finalist Marshall Bears piling on further pain to the Bears’ winless start to the summer.
Playing a patient innings on Saturday, Clarke reached 90 after 170 balls, but needed just four more deliveries in the 66th over to bring up the celebrated triple digits for the first time.
Opening the over with consecutive fours, Clarke struck a six – his second of the day – on the fourth ball to bring up his ton and the win for Modewarre in one fell swoop.
“It was good fun – it was our first win of the year which was the most important thing, so to play quite a big role in that was really nice,” Clarke said.
Chasing 219 on day two, Modewarre found themselves in early trouble on 2-13 before Clarke came in at four – a number he’s batted the last few years.
The top-order bat said he tried to “ride the wave” following those early fallen wickets.“It was pretty good bowling, so it was seeing off the new ball and try and wait for that bad ball that wasn’t coming too often early on,” he said.
“It was just trying to take some overs out of the game, and see where we can go from there.”
With fellow Englishman Jack Morgan soon dismissed with Modewarre on 3-40, Clarke found support in a trio of partnerships including Brandon Ross (40), Darcy French (28) and Ashley Hubbert (23 not out).
“It made my job a little bit easier, Brandon and Darcy both strike the ball pretty well so any loose ball from the opposition they kind of deal with it,” Clarke said.
“It let me just do my thing and cruise along at the other end for a bit.”Clarke said the squad had come into day two confident they could challenge for the win after a positive performance in the field.
“We’d had quite a good week actually, we’d always knew in terms of the actual pitch at Marshall it’s quite good for batting,” he said.
“So we’d had a good week of training and really knuckling down on our focus and targets.
“We were confident going into it, but obviously situations can always change.“ … I thought we played really well throughout the two days.”
Hailing from Leicester, Clarke said it was always his plan to come and play in Australia once he’d finished his electrician apprenticeship – the batter now relishing his time abroad since arriving.
“That was always the plan, get qualified and then come out and have a season out here,” he said.
“The lads have been the main part to be fair, they’ve helped me settle in really quickly.
“And that always helps when it comes to actually playing the cricket.”
Clarke’s hopes both his and Modewarre’s latest performance will spark more success in the coming rounds.
“It’s a nice platform to have now, and hopefully I can kick on from it,” he said.
“And as a team, we can build on the win, and really try and get a bit of momentum now.”
Elsewhere, Lethbridge’s Hayden Spiller was chief destroyer in his side’s 46-run win over reigning GCA3 premier Thomson.
Spiller snared figures of 6-44 as the Rosellas dismissed the Tigers for 195 on day two of their clash to keep the Tigers winless after six rounds.
Josh McDonald (52 from 55) and skipper Zac Smith (32 not out from 37) were the Tigers’ best with the bat.
More Coverage
Originally published as Highton captain Nathan McCoach takes 4-fa in GCA2 win as Modewarre import Ben Clarke hits maiden GCA3 century
Bizarre ‘hoax call’ ties up emergency services
