Seniors Sixth Round Day 2 Reports
Strong performance with bat and ball, sees the first win outright
With being in a very strong position overnight, having bowled Lysterfield out for 65 and making a quick 6\255, we declared first thing and we decided to push hard for an outright.
Things started pretty well with Cam Wheeler taking an early wicket. Upon that however, Lysterfield started to bat well and after 20 overs we were stuck with only one wicket. Enter Steve Deller, within the space of a few overs, we had them 4 down and we were back in control. Steve bowled very well all day to get the return of 6/22 of roughly a dozen overs and help us to what turned out to be a relatively easy outright victory. Josh Lindner also chipped in with two wickets in his 7 over spell.
With South Belgrave also winning outright, we are now 2 wins on top with a one dayer to be played before Christmas next week against Knox City
Seconds fall short, but, do well in second innings
Starting off with an overnight score of 3/69, the Gators had a massive task ahead of them if they were to turn the game around in their favour and take home the 6 points.
Unfortunately, within the first 5 overs, the beavers passed the low total of 93. With the game already lost, the gators still showed determination in the field, and continued to take wickets. Both openers Eraj and Brad finished with 2 wickets each (2/38 off 20 and 2/43 off 13), with Josh Burridge taking 2/31 off 4, and single wicket takers being Nick and Steve. Lysterfield made a lead of 93 before they sent us back in for a crack at an outright win.
The Gators knew they had to do something different to their first innings, and needed a strong and solid opening stand. This came from two unlikely guys, Kev and Josh Burridge. The two batted with responsibility and value for their wicket and really took the possibility of an outright away from the beavers. After Kev losing his wicket in the 13th over for 11, Josh took the role of the main batsmen and continued to take the innings in his hands. He finished up with a well fought 38 n.o before the beavers pulled the pin on 3/69 off 37 overs, and walking away with the 6 points.
The Gators face the Burra's in a one dayer this week, with positives signs of returning players, and the determination of being back on the winning side of things.
Threes fight back strongly and just fall short
With Ferntree Gully's main ground becoming available this week we chose to finish the last half of our game there, with 4 new faces in our team from Day 1, we set about taking the last 3 wickets of there innings. Things were starting to get away from us before we got a break with one of their batsmen retiring hurt. Evert then took 2 stampings of Robbo's bowling to bowl them out for 184.
With us 99 runs behind with 3 wickets in hand, our first aim was to pass the follow on total which we did only losing 1 wicket. Cam Davey and Steve Smith then built a partnership which saw us get to 40 runs off the target before Steve was caught for 24. We managed to only put on another 11 runs before we lost our final wicket falling 29 runs short. Cam Davey batted sensationally for 53, not out after coming in at 6/17.
