AIC First XI derby showdowns highlight round 3
Not even a fast bowling haul of 6-19 by Jacob Kumaru could prevent Villanova College from a convincing win over Marist College Ashgrove, while Padua beat St Patrick’s in the AIC First XI derby thriller match of the round.
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Not even a fast bowling haul of 6-19 by Jacob Kumaru could prevent Villanova College from a convincing win over Marist College Ashgrove, while Padua beat St Patrick’s in the AIC First XI derby thriller match of the round.
Kumaru (6-19) claimed five wickets in his second spell, but was still upstaged as Villa’s Baxter Fingland shone with bat and ball when Villanova defended 157 by dismissing Ashgrove for 117.
In other matches, St Peters Lutheran College (8-206) defeated St Edmund’s College (147) where pace and spin did the damage, and although Tom Waters starred for Iona (9-203), it was St Laurence’s 4-204 who prevailed.
At Ashgrove, the Villanova bowlers were magnificent defending 157 after the tight bowling effort from the Marist bowlers kept a lid on the batsmen.
Villa bowler Ben Fingland raised Villa’s expectations with an early wicket in the Ashgrove innings, then took another wicket and then a third scalp to add to the intrigue.
Fingland then took the catch off teammate Connor Moloney’s bowling and at 4-61, Ashgrove had gone from favourites to outsiders.
Fingland finished with 3-29 as Ash collapsed despite 32 from opener Jaxon Barwell.
Gus Godwin, Moloney, Ben Jeffs and even Baiden Park chipped in as Villa rose to take favouritism in the race for the AIC premiership.
Villa coach Nathan Dufty was delighted after being “a bit worried’’ his side was 30 runs short.
“On the bowling front, I could not be more proud of the bowling effort. We got a wicket or two and the guys then went to another level. It was just a great fightback.’’
Dufty had high praise for Ashgrove bowler Kumaru who pulled his hamstring in the match. “He bowled brilliantly and is a very, very talented bowler.’’
In the morning, after Ashgrove new ball spearhead Kumaru claimed an early wicket, Nicholas Fee (25) and Louis Henderson (13) tried to make headway for Villa against a disciplined bowling and fielding unit.
Henderson and Fee, along with batting ace Baiden Parker (30) and Fingland (15), contributed to Villa recovering to 3-97 before Kumaru returned for his second spell, dismissing Fingland (15) and four others.
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It was some performance from Kumaru, but by no means was it a one-man band despite his spectacular figures.
Baxter White (0-26, nine overs), Marcus Zipf (2-19, six overs) and Jesse O’Neill (1-26, nine overs) again did the job for Marist, while Joshua Waite (1-40, 10 overs) also had a good day, but it was not enough.
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At Mayer Oval, home team St Peters Lutheran College put together an even batting and bowling performance against a spirited St Edmund’s College.
It was a nice bounce back from St Peters after their batting collapsed seven days earlier.
“I am very proud of the way they responded,’’ said St Peters director of sport Shaun Nodwell.
“They applied themselves diligently, focused on their batting and to make more than 200, it showed all the hard work paid off.’’
The signs were good early for St Peters when openers Lachlan Donohue and Sam Batiste put value on their wickets to add 26 before Batiste (13) was run out by Ben Naish.
Donohue (35) pushed on with an aggressive Curtis Beevers (30, 42 balls) who, while mixing defence with attack, launched four fours and a six.
Keshavan Munsamy (50) then maintained St Peters scoring rate, but around him Eddies’ bowlers Lachlan Skull and Harry Sammut each claimed a wicket and Saints went from 2-93 to a less certain 5-100.
But Oscar Wright rushed to 24 runs for St Peters late and with support from George Thomas (11) and Bachu (18), the Saints total ballooned over 200.
The trio’s late rally was a pat on the back for Munsamy who poured two hours batting into holding the St Peters innings together.
When St Edmund’s batted, Kobe Rae (66) drove his team onto the front foot after George Thomas took an early wicket, while Samuel Callaghan (20) gave him a hand as Eddies’ past 50 in the 17th over.
The pair added 93 for the second wicket, but 3-7 courtesy of wickets from Thomas and Oscar Wright sent St Edmund’s wobbling.
Slowly but surely the St Peters bowling group worked their way through the St Edmonds batting, with spearheads Thomas (3-20) and Wright (3-21) leading the way from leg-spinner Matthew Harvie (2-26), Beevers and James Roberts.
At Runcorn, Iona’s Tom Waters (81, 105 balls) produced a first class performance to lift his side to 9-203 when all seemed lost, but it was not enough to prevent St Laurence’s (4-204) winning.
Luke Stenhouse and Nicholas Parrott did a tremendous job for Laurie’s with the bat, establishing the innings after the loses of Lunt (10) and Xavier Santos (20).
Parrott raised his 50 in just 62 balls, with five fours flowing from his bat, and went on to score 77 while Stenhouse raised the roof with 51 not out from 48 balls, including seven fours and a six.
Jack Richards (15 not out) joined in and the match was won.
St Laurence’s coach Cameron Wigan said the batting was outstanding and a decision to bowl out their spinners early to try and stay “in front of the game’’ worked because his team were asked to chase low 200s instead of mid-200s.
All this after Iona scored 86 runs from the last 10 overs as Waters pressed the go button alongside Bodie Richardson (18) and Daniel Linning (13 not out).
St Laurence’s bowlers Lochie Josefski (1-22) and Callum Reidy (0-26) were in such good form early that they were bowled out as Lauries’ put the breaks on Iona College.
Josefski bowled four maidens and Reidy two in their respective 10 overs spells, but then Noah Edmonds was even more economical with his 0-19 from 10 overs.
At 4-120 from 40 overs, Iona still had a launching pad courtesy of contributions from Mitchell Yarrow (44, 66 balls) and the steadfast Waters.
A key moment in the innings came when Josefski ran out Yarrow who was having a day out, but Waters remained with the lower order and few could have predicted his influence on the final 10 overs of the innings.
Two quick wickets to Archer Linning and Yarrow then placed Laurie’s onto the backfoot, although Nicholas Parrott counterattacked for St Laurence’s.
Linning bowled a beautiful early spell, snaring the key wicket of Lunt as his first six overs yielded figures of 1-9.
Padua College (7-194) pipped St Patrick’s College (8-193) in a northside derby that was decided with just an over to spare.
In a tense finale, Braithyn Pecic (8 not out) and Daniel Matheson (23 not out, 18 balls) finished with a flowing partnership that took their side from 7-162 past the Paddies’ total.
“It was a great game of cricket between two very even sides,’’ praised Padua College assistant coach Simon Stower.
Stower had high praise for Matheson who finished with five wickets and also hit the winning runs. “He got us over the line with a couple of big sixes.’’
George Kelsall was the batting hero, with his 73 from 80 balls, swinging the match in the direction of Padua.
Earlier, Kelsall (2-12) and Matheson (5-30) were a class above when at the bowling crease despite a stoic Harrison Clench (60, 207 minutes).
Kelsall’s first eight overs yielded 2-6 and Matheson bowled 6-2-7-3, and around them Joe Cotgreave and Coby Janas kept the screws on.
Kelsall then capped a mighty all-rounders performance with a blazing half century, sharing in a match defining partnerships with opener Thomas Francey (36).
Francey played second fiddle to the fluent Kelsall whose innings progressed at slightly better than a run-a-ball.
In Paddies’ first innings, given the quality of the bowling and the pressure being exerted, Clench did well to drop anchor while Benjamin Buechler (32) produced another dashing knock in just over an hour.
The pair added 58 with Buechler the focal point, and his contributions this season have been welcomed in the middle order.
Clench produced an old fashioned opener’s innings full of concentration in hot conditions against a nagging attack.
Paddies’ wicketkeeper Braden Volker (34) also fought hard and it was evident that St Patrick’s would be in the fight all afternoon.
How it must have raised the morale of the Villanova bowlers to see Clench and Volker add 94 runs and give them a good total to defend.
Lachlan Hartshorn and Bailey Reed further added to Villa’s cause with two early wickets, with Hayden Vickers and Buechler did their job splendidly.
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