Coburg captain Aaron Shellie was on fire with bat and ball against Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe simply had no answers for a red-hot Coburg captain Aaron Shellie as he ran rampant with bat and ball on Saturday.

Aaron Shellie in action for Coburg. Photo: Hamish Blair

On Thursday, Aaron Shellie could hardly walk after injuring his back.

On Saturday, the Coburg captain single-handedly put Ivanhoe to the sword with one of the VSDCA North-West season’s most dominant individual performances.

After winning the toss and bowling on a “green” wicket, Shellie sliced through the Saints’ batting order, taking 7-18 from 16 overs – bowling 10 maidens.

Chasing just 79 for first innings points, he then crushed a blistering 99 from 97 balls – hitting eight boundaries and four sixes.

In basketball parlance, that’s called stuffing the stat sheet.

Coburg captain Aaron Shellie (left) speaks to Jacob Carruthers. Picture: Andy Brownbill

The only disappointment was not getting that extra run to bring up a well deserved century, bowled by Huzaifa Akram.

“I probably just went away from my game and tried to push one around the corner for one, knowing what I was on,” Shellie said.

“If I kept going the way I was going I could have put him over his head and put it out of harm’s way but that’s the game sometimes.

“(The pitch) had a little bit in it at Coburg, it was a fresh wicket – probably our first fresh wicket for a while – and it was a little bit green and had some moisture in it.

“Luckily I won the toss, put them in, and just bowled a couple in a good area and got a couple of wickets.

“(The back wasn’t too bad … it might have changed by career though, I came off the short run and it was amazing, the boys said I didn’t bowl any faster or slower.”

The bowling performance takes Shellie to 30 wickets for the season and likely into the top-10 wicket-takers in the competition.

Meanwhile, already ranked eighth overall with the bat, the knock is his second 90 in three weeks and takes his aggregate to 572.

Akshpreet Singh (2-12) and Kevin Noronha (1-9) were the other wicket-takers for Coburg.

Jack McLagan was Ivanhoe’s top-scorer with a fighting 14 from 47 balls.

Coburg went to stumps at 4-157 with Robbie O’Brien (31no) and Cam D’Cruz (1no) at the crease.

While the season hasn’t gone to plan for the Lions, who sit 13th, the performance showed what the team is capable of.

“Obviously we’re not placed where we think we should be or playing the cricket we think we can produce,” Shellie said.

“The gap between our best cricket and worst cricket is a big, we either turn up or we don’t at the moment.

“Our best is really good and competitive and we can mix it with the big dogs.”

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Coburg will start the second week of the match with a lead of 78 and Shellie will be looking to seal an outright victory.

“We spoke about it after the game, there’s not many times in your career you get a chance to get an outright win,” he said.

“I think we’ll bat on a little bit to see what the wicket produces because you never know, it could be a flatty or another seamer.”

Elsewhere, Hoppers Crossing (152) has also wrapped up first innings points against Taylors Lakes (73), while Kew (3-61) is on the verge against Plenty Valley (65).