St Leonards had the worst of the conditions – and the rules – but stayed calm and worked hard to defeat Newcomb in a heavily rain-affected round 7 Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association A2 Grade fixture.
Day one of the scheduled two-day clash was completely washed out and rain early on day two meant play began almost an hour late.
Newcomb won the toss and had no hesitation batting first and the Saints’ quick bowlers had trouble with their footing on a slippery surface at Ervin Reserve.
Eight overs were lost at the start of play, but under BPCA rules, the teams didn’t get to face 36 overs each. Instead, Newcomb would be given a full allotment of 40 overs and the Saints would then have 32 overs to chase any score they were set.
It made for an interesting afternoon.
“At tea we still had 12 overs to bowl,” St Leonards captain Shane Cutajar said.
“I don’t think we started our batting innings until just shy of five o’clock. And then it started looking gloomy again and then obviously light was going to be a factor.”
Newcomb was all out one ball shy of its 40 overs for 163 with Singhara Kumar left stranded on 97 for the second time this season. Shane Healey made 38, but no other batter reached double figures.
Kumar made 97 not out in round 3 against Winchelsea and again left the field at the change of innings three runs shy of a deserved century.
“He (Kumar) skied a lot of balls that just dropped into gaps and had a bit of good fortune,” Cutajar said.
“When we came out after tea, they were 101 with 12 overs to bat and he just went nuts and started hitting the ball really clean and it was unfortunate that he couldn’t get back on strike in the last over to get his ton because he deserved it in the end.”
Saints’ paceman Seb Harrison struggled with the slippery surface, but Cutajar’s son Oscar again stepped up with 1/28 from eight overs while Will Stovell took 3/30 from eight and James Burns 1/29 from eight.
“He’s probably been our most consistent line and length bowler,” Cutajar said of his 18-year-old seam bowler son.
“Which as we all know in the Bellarine, if you can control your lines and your lengths, it goes a long way to being economical, and he’s been able to do that this year. He’s been great and he’s really enjoying the move from Drysdale.”
With 32 overs to chase 164 for victory, Troy Griffin again destroyed the bowling attack with a rapid 79 while Paul Hassan made a valuable 52 not out.
“He (Griffin) was the catalyst for the win – he just hits the ball so cleanly,” Cutajar said.
“(And) I could just see in the nets on Thursday night that he (Hassan) was hitting the ball really cleanly. I said to him, ‘mate, you’re going to bat up the order this week’.”
St Leonards reached the target in the 27th over with six wickets intact with Cutajar making 19, but throwing his wicket away with a handful of runs to win.
“I tried to finish it off with the last shot of the game and hit it straight up in the air,” he said.
“When I went in, we still needed 45- or 50-odd runs, but once we got it down to single figures we knew we were home. I just tried to just finish it off there and then and holed out.”
The third-placed Saints face Collendina in the final game before the break.
While the Cobras appear to be struggling of late, Cutajar knows how dangerous some of their players are.
“It’s the challenge that we need and it’s the challenge that we want going into Christmas,” he said.
“We know that if we get everything right against them and get the six points, we couldn’t have done any more in the first half of the year.”
WALLINGTON won a low-scoring game against Ocean Grove to ignite its season.
Resuming at 3/9 in pursuit of 108 for victory, the Wallabies lost an early wicket and were in more trouble again at 7/56.
But Sven Burluraux (50 not out) was joined by Billy Gravett (20 not out) with the pair sharing an unbeaten 53-run stand to take their side to victory.
Baljinder Singh Brar took 3/33 for Ocean Grove while Campbell Snookes snared 2/16 from 13 probing overs.
WINCHELSEA batted for the majority of day two to end on 8/213 after bowling Collendina out for 73 last week.
Jarrod Groves failed to add to his overnight score of 49, but captain Shane Murdoch (43) and Toby Furbush (44 not out) spent time at the crease while Corey Walter took 2/38 from 16 overs for the Cobras.
PORTARLINGTON captain Nathaniel Symes took 5/21 and Tom Stewart 4/44 to help defeat Surf Coast by 19 runs.
Needing 203 for victory, Vik Rathore (58) and Rhys Healy (37) gave the Suns a chance, but when Will Liddle was run out for 28 with the score at 7/164, it was always going to be tough.
