What a comeback it was for the Under-13s Deniliquin Rhinos on Sunday morning.
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It was a chilly morning at Memorial Park as the Rhinos excitedly prepared for their first home game of the 2023/2024 season.
Captain Daniel Burn lost the bat flip and Tocumwal decided to bowl first.
They knew they had a seam bowler in blistering form and wanted to get the upper hand early in the match.
Toc’s Lucas Grieves tore through the Rhinos top order, bowling out three batsmen in his first two overs and getting a caught and bowled to earn him the figures of four wickets for three runs after four overs. This included a maiden over and a three wicket maiden over – amazing bowling figures for one of the game’s stars of the future.
The Rhinos collapse continued and they found themselves five wickets down with just eight runs on the board.
It wasn’t until Daniel Burn and Ned Wettenhall came to the crease to form an outstanding unbeaten partnership that the Rhinos settled into their innings.
The pair defended their wickets well against Tocumwal’s strong bowling attack of Grieves, Archie Matters and Joel Harrison.
Daniel and Ned both hit some fine cover drives, pull shots and fine leg taps to score several boundaries and keep the scoreboard ticking over.
Both retired and returned to the crease later in the innings.
Hunter Campbell also defended well and remained not out at the end of the 20 overs on four runs.
Daniel topped the Rhinos scoreboard with 48 not out, being deprived of a probable half-century through the retirement policy.
Ned ended his innings on 32 not out.
The Rhinos celebrated the milestone of their first innings of 100 runs with wickets to spare.
Tocumwal started its run-chase well with a boundary to Joel Harrison in the first over off Hunter Campbell’s bowling.
He then held out to Jacob Holschier two balls later and was back in the shed with just the boundary to his name.
Tocumwal then collapsed as George Marshall took his first ever two wickets for the Rhinos, bowling out Lucas and Layla Harrison who didn’t bother the scorers much.
Tocumwal were 3/7 after four overs.
Archie settled in for Tocumwal but it wasn’t until youngster Max White joined him at the crease that Tocumwal were able to settle into a partnership.
Disciplined bowling by the Rhinos bowlers kept Tocumwal defending and unable to progress beyond 60 runs.
Red Ricon bowled out Ross Grieves for a duck late in the game.
Tocumwal were bowled out with two balls remaining in their innings, as U12s player Will Crossley chimed in with two wickets in the final over.
The Tocumwal batsmen held out to Ned Wettenhall and Ollie Bull.
Rhinos bowlers Ned, Red Ricon and Daniel were the most miserly of the bowlers.
Ned’s figures were 1/2 after two overs, Red ended his only over on 1/1 and Daniel ended with 0/1 after two overs.
Daniel’s overall performance earned him the day’s Wired Entertainment coach’s award.
The boys travel to Barooga this evening to play.
New players and potential team sponsors are encouraged to contact Deniliquin Rhinos Cricket Club by email on denirhinoscc@hotmail.com or by phoning Jo Burn on 0428 826 327.
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The Under-12 Rhinos cricket team hosted Tocumwal at Deniliquin Memorial Park last Friday night.
This was their third game of the season and the skill level and sportsmanship is improving every week.
With the Rhinos having a full side of 11 and Tocumwal down one player, Zach Germano put his hand straight up to play for the opposition.
It was great to see and he was a great asset to their team.
Under hot conditions, the training the young Rhinos have put into their fielding and bowling paid off, taking 11 wickets and keeping Tocumwal to a score of 43.
This included four run outs and two wickets each to Fletcher Smith and Edward Bliss.
After a short break, which included fruit and icy poles (just the ticket in the blistering heat), the team was ready to bat and was lead out by match captains Oscar Bull and Charlie Tremble.
They took on what was emphasised at training from coach Jack Eastman to run between the wickets.
This was obvious to see and great to watch, and saw the opening batters put on 22 runs.
This continued throughout the innings and saw the team score an impressive 112 runs in 20 overs off the bat.
Several players scored boundaries – Oscar Bull, Jack Brown, Edward Bliss, Ben McDonald, Charlie Murray, James Armytage and Will Crossley. The developing batting skills of this team are worth watching.
On an outstanding day of batting, one individual standout was Edward Bliss who hit the highest score for the Rhinos with 21 runs.
An honourable mention goes to Jack Brown who scored 16 runs.
The Wired Entertainment coach’s award went to Ben Macdonald, who showed a huge improvement in his batting and bowling from last week.
The final score was Tocumwal all out for 37 – and the Deniliquin Rhinos were 2/134.
Thank you to all the parent helpers who scored, kept the players hydrated and prepared during the afternoon.
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