Youth Premier League: Central Highlands defeat Breakers in grand final

Lucas Cavigan, Sam Lalor and Darcye Moloney were among the leading performers for a Highlands team stacked with ‘quality players’.

Central Highlands on the Junction Oval after winning the YPL title.

The Cricket Victoria Under 16 Youth Premier League series could hardly have gone better for Lucas Cavigan.

The 15-year-old captained Central Highlanders to a grand final victory over South East Bayside Breakers and finished as the leading run scorer for the carnival.

Cavigan came in with 355 runs at 50.7, highlighted by an innings of 128 against the Suns at Hamilton College. He faced 128 balls and cracked 7 fours and 1 six.

Cavigan contributed an even 50 in a hefty team total of 8-292 in the final at the Junction Oval.

Opener Jake Klein (77), Sam Lalor (49), Bodhi Robinson (48) and Archie Lalor (33) also played important hands.

The Breakers slumped to 6-44 in their reply but Max Walker (52) and Moe Spencer (63) put on 117 to lift their team to a respectable 205.

Central Highlands opening bowler Darcye Moloney took 4-45 off 8.4 overs and ended the series with 16 wickets at 13.2.

Moloney is the son of former North Ballarat VFL premiership captain Spider Moloney.

Central Highlanders celebrtate a Breakers wicket in the final.

“He came from nowhere,’’ Highlands coach James Dickinson said of the left-armer.

“He really improved through the tournament. He was exposed at that higher level of competition and just grew into it. He’s a top-of-off sort of bowler, pushing across the batsmen. He probably exceeded his own expectations.’’

Dickinson said the Highlands team had a lot of talent, with most of the players having represented their associations.

“They’re quality players. It really was a pleasure to coach them,’’ he said.

Sam Lalor was second on the run list with 347 at 49.57, Harry DeMattia third with 343 at 42.9 and Oliver Peake fourth with 302 at 50.33.

Seven players made centuries: Cavigan, Sam Lalor (105), DeMattia (148), North East Country pair Scott Kane (102no) and James Thewlis (124no), Akshith Sriram (112no) of Metropolitan North West and Braydon O’Connor (114no) of Metropolitan Northern. And 11 batsmen made more than 200 runs.

In the bowling, Leo Dench of Metropolitan Northern joined Moloney on 16 wickets, taking his at 10.38.

Connor Weidemann of Country West collected 15 at 7.27 and Harry Wallace of South East Country took 15 at 10.7.

The best figures came from Hamish Pearce of Metropolitan North West, who jagged 6-13 off 6.2 overs against Western Spirit.

Gippsland’s Jarvis Harvey, the nephew of former international and Victorian allrounder Ian, claimed 12 wickets from his seven matches.