Spinner Tom Beasley and seamer Ben Harcombe combined to bowl Anglesea to victory against Drysdale in round 6 of BPCA A1 Grade.
Anglesea is the only undefeated side in the competition after Armstrong Creek defeated Barwon Heads and Beasley said there is a good vibe at Ellimatta Reserve.
Needing an unlikely 340 to win on Saturday, Queenscliff was bowled out for 126 with Beasley taking 4/43 from 19 overs and Harcombe 4/14 from 11.
“We were pretty happy with how we went – it was a pretty complete performance,” Beasley said.
“We’ve been trying to get one on the board with everyone playing their role and stuff like that. So it’s really nice our batting balls kind of combined together and even in the field too, we were a lot sharper than we had been previously. It was really nice to get a win like that.”
Beasley praised the performance of Harcombe.
“He missed out with the bat in the first week and copped a beauty that went straight through him,” he said.
“So for him to come back and bowl the way he did on Saturday was good. We talk about Big Boy cricket all the time with the younger squad and he came back, his chest was out, he. Was putting a few short ones in there and keeping the bats honest and got the rewards for it.”
Beasley said it was good for the competition to see his fellow spinners thriving. Players such as Jan Juc’s Mark Zahra, Armstrong Creek’s Matt Kennedy and Barwon Heads’ Dan Donaldson have all taken big hauls this season.
“The spinners are doing a lot of the damage,” he said.
“Being on the synthetic stuff, if the wind’s there and you get the drop and you get the revs on it, then you don’t need the ball to be turning at right angles to to take wickets. But also I think spinners are a little bit cleverer than the quicks. We’ve got a few more brain cells.”
A CLAY Mulgrew masterclass enabled Armstrong Creek to defeat Barwon Heads. Mulgrew made an unbeaten 127 from 209 balls to guide the Titans home with two wickets and three balls to spare.
JAN JUC defeated Ocean Grove, chasing down 141 with ease thanks to a player of the match performance from Mark Zahra (60 and 6/27) and Nick Hyden (47).
NINE wickets shared between James Jirik (5/24) and James Fisher (4/44) enabled Barrabool to bowl Drysdale out for 151 and win by 133 runs.
