Premier Cricket 2020-21: Richmond’s Scott Edwards hits fourth century

Richmond’s Scott Edwards, who has represented the Netherlands 33 times, is enjoying a golden summer in Victoria’s top competition.

Scott Edwards has hit two centuries for Richmond this season. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Scott Edwards delivered a career-best Premier Cricket knock on Saturday as he continues to pile on the runs in a career-best season.

The 24-year-old compiled an unbeaten 101 at the top of the order to steer Richmond to an upset 22-run win over Northcote.

With the Tigers sent in at Central Reserve, Edwards again proved the backbone for his side, hitting four boundaries and two sixes in his 129-ball stay.

He was well-supported by No.4 Tim Goodman (38), the pair putting on 88 for the third wicket as Richmond reached 7-214 from its 50 overs before restricting the visitors to 9-192.

“He’s having an awesome year,” Tigers skipper Dom Matarazzo said of Edwards.

“I thought it was probably the best of the four hundreds that he’s got (for Richmond).

“Getting put in at Central, it’s always tough early, so for an opener to bat through like he did and be a rock for the rest of the boys to bat around … it’s nice to have.

“And it’s nice to finally win a game when he got some runs.

“He’s not flashy … he just accumulates, is really solid and a really good player. He’s having a breakout year.”

Richmond’s Scott Edwards leaves a delivery from Northcote’s Michael Topp. Picture: Steve Tanner

Edwards is the competition’s fourth most prolific batsman, lifting his season tally to 579 runs at 52.6.

After a quiet start to the summer, he has made contributions of 79, 121, 11, 53, 53, 50, 69, 0 and 101 not out, underlining his consistency.

The wicketkeeper-batsman, who was born in Tonga, has represented the Netherlands 33 times at international level and Matarazzo said Edwards was reaping the rewards of hard labour.

“He has been in the Dutch set up and he’s just been hitting more and more balls. The more time you can devote to cricket, the better you become and he’s putting in the work,” he said.

“He basically plays cricket any time he can. I think he’s playing in five or six T20 comps this year as a marquee player.”

Northcote was fell short despite batting out its overs, with the Tigers producing a disciplined bowling display.

Sam Mills (4-33), Bailey Moon (3-33), Marcus Berryman (1-24) and Wil Parker (1-40) shared the wickets, while Matarazzo sent down eight tight overs at a cost of 26 runs.

“Our bowling’s been our strength all year, we just haven’t had enough runs for the most part,” Matarazzo said.

“For the boys to all step up when we finally had a defendable total against a good side was really pleasing.

“We’ve got a pretty good balance of fast, medium and spin.”

Richmond sits in 11th spot on the ladder with a 5-1-7 record, 12 points outside the top eight.

It will face Geelong (sixth), St Kilda (fifth), Melbourne University (ninth) and Fitzroy Doncaster (fourth) in the run home.

“We’re starting to get an identity and a realisation of what we’ve got to do to stay in games,” Matarazzo said.

“We’re getting games into the younger guys and they’re starting to see that talent only gets you so far and you’ve got to grind to compete at that level.

“It was always going to be a tough year, but we’re still in with a shout for finals at this time of the year, so you can’t really complain about that.”