Chinthaka Jayasinghe takes hat-trick for Yarraville Club

Dropping an “absolute soda” proved to be the catalyst for a Yarraville Club star’s match winning performance including a hat-trick. Watch it here.

Yarraville Club’s Chinthaka Jayasinghe starred on the weekend. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Chinthaka Jayasinghe’s performance for Yarraville Club on Saturday started as a near disaster but it eventually turned into something special.

After dropping what captain-coach Mitch Johnstone described as an “absolute soda” early in the innings, the VTCA star went onto produce a stunning performance with bat and ball in his side’s win over Sunshine United.

He finished with figures of 3-22 from his eight over spell which ended on the back of a hat-trick.

Jayasinghe cleaned bowled Ryan Chatterton who tried to lap him his right-arm medium pacers down to fine leg before claiming Wajhe Bangash and United skipper Tom O’Brien for golden ducks.

His hat-trick ball to dismiss Bangash LBW sparked a wild appeal where you could sense Jayasinghe’s urgency for the umpire to raise his finger before producing an excited celebration.

With the bat, the man known as CJ produced an unbeaten 58 runs off 83 balls to guide his side to a five-wicket win.

“Not bad for a 46-year-old,” Johnstone said.

“He dropped that catch early in the game and it just motivated him to get going from there. I thought his bowling had been really tight up until that point and he got the reward with the ball.

“He managed to bat really well through the middle overs and kept the chase under control.”

Johnstone and young spinning sensational Jackson Martin also claimed three wickets apiece as the skipper credited his spinners for restricting the Tigers throughout the game.

He said Martin was starting to find his best form again.

“He had a growth spurt before the season and it probably took him some time to adjust to release from that height,” Johnstone said.

“But just before Christmas and the first game he’s been in some really good form. He played in another competition last month as well and managed to win the MVP award for that.

“He’ll play some Dowling Shield as well, so he’s in a really good place at the moment.”

Jackson Martin. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Saturday’s game also saw the Clubbers hand a First XI debut to 15-year-old Issam Sami.

The right-arm medium pacer finished with 1-9.

His scalp was United opener Neeten Chouhan.

“Two games ago he was in the Third XI, played really well in the Second XI and then did some nice things in the T20s so we had to give him a go,” Johnstone said.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to be giving a few of the younger guys a go and they’re coming in and having an impact.”

Yarraville Club will next face Westmeadows.