Sport
Two hat-trick innings, seven-fors highlight Cricket Shepparton’s lower grade action
Saturday Sundries are all the extra highlights from the weekend’s lower grade cricket — from the top run-scorer to the best bowling figures and anything else of interest from across the district’s grounds.
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From pulverising pre-teen batting to pistol-accurate bowling, there was no dearth of dominant performances across the junior and senior grades from the past week.
News photographer Rechelle Zammit was behind the lens for the under-14 A contest between Mooroopna and Katandra.
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Zip it in: Katandra's Reuben Davis. Photo by Rechelle ZammitImage 2 of 8
Under arm lob: Katandra fielder Cooper Malcolm. Photo by Rechelle ZammitImage 3 of 8
Tip and run: Mooroopna's Tyson Glover. Photo by Rechelle ZammitImage 4 of 8
I can see Cleary now: Katandra wicket-keeper Thomas Cleary. Photo by Rechelle ZammitImage 5 of 8
Step back: Mooroopna’s Tyson Glover. Photo by Rechelle ZammitImage 6 of 8
Have a shy: Katandra's Jack Poyner. Photo by Rechelle ZammitImage 7 of 8
Let’s do this: Mooroopna’s Dylan Child and Tyson Glover. Photo by Rechelle ZammitImage 8 of 8
In the field: Katandra's Alexandra Smith. Photo by Rechelle ZammitBrilliant young Blue
Junior cricket can often be accused of being boring.
Not when Callan O’Dwyer is playing.
Against Karramomus, the Numurkah under-12 player supplied the Friday night fireworks equal to firecrackers on the fourth as he smacked an unbeaten 81 before walking off retired.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, it only took him 30 balls to get there.
O’Dwyer peeled 13 boundaries and three sixes while striking at 270, meaning a cool 70 of his total came from big swings of the bat.
He even rolled the arm over in the following innings, bowling a wicket maiden in his only over.
Going off Friday’s performance alone, the Blues have a serious talent on their hands.
Almost Achint history
Though it was carried out on a hard wicket, there was nothing synthetic about Kuldeep Achint’s game for Shepparton United in D-grade on Saturday.
The powerful middle-order slog-master made a mockery of Old Students’ bowlers as he raced to 83 from 33 balls, mincing eight sixes and seven fours.
Achint then did further damage with the new ball, taking 3-29 to give his side a chance of toppling the second-ranked Students.
Ultimately his efforts were in vain.
Thanks to Jason Wild (86) and Mathew Ismail (46 not out), the visitors tracked down United’s score in the penultimate over to close out a ripping game.
A special mention goes to Northerners’ similarly epic SJ Perry Shield triumph over Karramomus, which was won with five balls left to play.
Boy oh boy
Central Park-St Brendan’s had the FrogBox on for its C-grade clash against Invergordon, giving people at home a chance to watch along at home.
It appears the Tigers picked the wrong game to livestream.
At Deakin Reserve, B-grade opening bat Andrew Boyington was busy crafting a magnificent ton as he rolled through the gears to raise the bat twice.
His near-five hour stint at the crease eventually ended in the 62nd over, holing out on 108 to help set up Central Park’s 9-276 against Old Students.
Boyington’s century was the only one across all of Cricket Shepparton’s senior grades and marks his first of the season after making a swathe of starts in the opening eight rounds.
Fairytale at Princess Park
One glance at Pine Lodge’s B-grade score sheet and a particular name will stick out like a sore thumb: Hamish McGregor.
The Shepparton United bowler instead gave the scorers sore thumbs ― after all, they would’ve been sick of writing his name next to the batters as he took an absurd 7-30 on Saturday.
From his 17 overs, the United paceman had eight maidens at an economy of 1.76 to be the architect in keeping Pine Lodge to 120.
Stunningly, what came next shrouded McGregor’s achievement completely.
Lodger Tiron Fernando blew through in the fourth over and claimed a hat-trick, pulling back some power for the visitors before the feat was repeated seven overs later.
This time it was Gill Nav producing the second triple of the match, first dismissing Jaskirat Singh before trapping Brijesh Kumar and Ian Maiden behind in two successive balls.
Unless PlayHQ has pulled a fast one, this may be the most extraordinary excerpt we’ve seen all season.
Bowling pianos
More maidens than a medieval tale graced Euroa Recreation Reserve on Saturday.
From the 71.3 overs bowled by travelling outfit Karramomus, more than a third went without a score as the Magpies sweated under immense pressure.
Jake Keating’s figures alone were a barometer for the Bloods’ accuracy.
The well-known soccer referee whistled through his 24.4 overs in no time, rattling off 13 maidens and five Euroa bats to claim 5-30 without a single wide or no ball.
For context, Karramomus only conceded six extras across the entire innings.
In the words of Tuco Salamanca from Breaking Bad, the strict showing from the Bloods was ‘tight, tight, tight’.
Senior Sports Journalist