Victorian Premier Cricket Team of the Week Round 16: Maxwell, Gulbis
Our Premier Cricket Team of the Week is stacked with big-game performers, including an Australia all-rounder. See who else made the cut.
Local Sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Local Sport . Followed categories will be added to My News.
The big names are coming to the fore ahead of Premier Cricket finals next month.
The selection panel at Leader Community News has come together and picked the Team of the Week in Victoria’s pre-eminent cricket competition.
Our XI is full of guns, including an Australia star and several ex-state players, and is not short of power with bat and ball.
Carlton, Fitzroy Doncaster, Prahran and St Kilda each had two players picked in the squad of 12, while Essendon, Frankston Peninsula, Melbourne and Geelong are also represented.
Evan Gulbis (Carlton)
Gulbis blasted his third century of the summer and 20th in Premier Cricket in the Blues’ crushing win over Casey-South Melbourne. The star all-rounder batted through the innings to post 168 not out, with his knock featuring 10 boundaries and nine sixes. Gulbis has 674 runs at 51.8 this season to go with 22 wickets at 18.5 apiece. He also has back-to-back centuries to his name in an ominous warning ahead of finals.
James Seymour (Essendon)
Seymour’s unbeaten 108, his third century of the Premier Cricket season, lifted his tally to 820 runs in 12 games and back to the top of the competition’s run-scorers charts. The star opener has played three fewer games than his nearest rival, Geelong’s Eamonn Vines, and boasts an incredible average of 102.50. He also managed to pick up 2-11 with the ball and take two catches in the win over Dandenong.
Damon Egan (Prahran)
The No.3 cracked his second century of the season of his team defeated Footscray, Egan’s 114 off 118 balls featuring 12 fours and three sixes. He is in a rich vein of form with four half-centuries (three of them unbeaten) and a ton in his past five knocks and has 610 runs at 61 to his name. Will be a batsman to watch during the coming finals series.
Adam Crosthwaite (St Kilda)
The former state gloveman took Greenvale’s bowlers for 109 not out, his highest score as a Saint. Crosthwaite’s second century of the season takes him to the cusp of 500 runs on the season at an outstanding average of 70.86. The Saints skipper anchored his team’s dominant 5-261 as it claimed a 177-run victory to cement a place in Premier Cricket finals with one game remaining in the regular season.
Jack Rudd (Fitzroy Doncaster)
The Lions star has been put in the middle-order after Gulbis and Seymour’s heroics, but Rudd is enjoying a standout season. The opener again played a key role for his team on Saturday with 79 at the top of the order against Geelong, taking his season aggregate to 667 runs at 55.6 – outstanding against the new ball. Rudd has three centuries and three half-centuries this season.
Glenn Maxwell (Fitzroy Doncaster)
The Australia all-rounder loves playing club cricket and he made a big contribution in Fitzroy Doncaster’s victory, hammering 49 from 50 balls before claiming 3-25 from nine overs, including the scalps of Geelong openers Eamonn Vines and Hayden Butterworth. Maxwell collected 4-35 in his first appearance of the season for the Lions the previous week.
Brayden Stepien (Carlton) - WK
The belligerent wicketkeeper-batsman hammered 76 from 79 balls against the Swans, sharing a 154-run stand with his captain-coach Gulbis for the first wicket. It was Stepien’s second half-century since he returned from his Big Bash League stint with Melbourne Renegades and took his season tally to 608 runs at 60.8. He also completed a stumping as the Blues triumphed by 171 runs.
Brodie Symons (Frankston Peninsula)
The Heat captain was arguably man of the match in Saturday’s tie with Ringwood. Symons collected 3-47 with the ball – including Tom Rogers for a duck – and secured a run out in the field. He then scored 49 as Frankston Peninsula pursued the Rams’ 9-213, run out agonisingly short of a deserved half-century. Symons was a big reason why his team was able to walk away with at least three points.
Fergus O’Neill (Melbourne)
At just 20, O’Neill is spearheading Melbourne’s push for back-to-back Premier Cricket titles. The young gun picked up another 4-16 – his best figures of the season – in Saturday’s bonus point win over Camberwell Magpies to lift his season tally to 27 scalps, the sixth most in the competition. He added 23 with the bat as the Demons recorded a 98-run victory.
Henry Thornton (St Kilda)
Greenvale was already up against it chasing 5-261, and Premier Cricket’s leading wicket-taker showed no mercy. Thornton’s 4-22 was his fourth four-wicket haul of the season as he swept through the Kangaroos middle and lower order. The Saints paceman has 34 wickets in 15 games, two more than nearest rival James Nanopoulous, with an outstanding average of 13.56.
Kieren Helwig (Geelong)
It was a tough day out for the Cats’ bowling attack as Fitzroy Doncaster racked up 258 but Helwig can hold his head high. After starting the season in the Third XI, it’s been a rapid rise for the paceman and his 4-41 was his best return in three First XI matches.
Andrew Perrin (Prahran) – 12th man
The star True Blues paceman was stiff to miss the XI after returning from suspension, with his haul of 4-62 crucial in his team’s hard-fought 11-run win over Footscray. Dogs skipper Dylan Kight, state player Travis Dean and champion Dean Russ were among his victims. Perrin has 15 wickets from nine matches in 2020-21.
Star leg-spinner ‘should be starting to be looked at’
Carlton all-rounder Connor Rutland has tipped praise on the Blues’ star leg-spinner, saying Saturday’s match winning spell was further proof he has what it takes at a higher level.
Rare air for young Ram on debut
First XI debuts with the ball simply don’t come much better, or memorable, than that of Ringwood’s Justin Beaton. Remember the name.