Lower grade cricket is the gift that keeps on giving.
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Cricket Shepparton’s B through E-grade continues to provide unique moments and entertaining individual displays, with rounds four and five of the lower grade seasons handing some of the most eye-catching scorecards seen yet.
Saturday Sundries recaps all the greatest moments, and in the latest edition, there’s plenty mind-blowing moments to wrap your head around.
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Triple triple figures?
Reaching the elusive tally of triple figures is something all batters aspire to achieve in the game of cricket, and its rarity makes the achievement all the more special.
So when C-grade Pine Lodge batter Gavin Singh bashed a 79-ball 122, he would’ve had every right to think it was not only a potential match-winning knock, but the top score of the grade, if not the entire senior Cricket Shepparton competition for the weekend.
But Mooroopna Recreation Reserve’s wicket may as well have been located on the adjacent Echuca Rd, because it seemed that’s exactly what the pitch was.
A mammoth total of 262 was a breezy task for the Cats, losing just one wicket on its way to the target total with more than couple overs to spare.
In addition to the cruisy win, the Cats saw two men surpass triple figures to take the game’s century tally up to three - up until round five there had been three centuries total for the C-grade season.
Mark Nolen scored his fourth career ton with 101 not out, while Jac Smith Williams launched 128 not out off 102 balls to supersede Singh’s individual total.
Somehow though, the runs don’t dry up there.
A fourth ton for the round was scored by Northerners’ Matthew Hall, nudging a single with three balls left in the innings against Old Students to raise the bat and helmet.
Numurkah opens the Daw
While plenty of cricketers raised the bat in the lower grades this weekend, just one bowler raised the rock for his wizardry with the ball.
Numurkah B-grade bowler Sean Dawson may be rolling the arm over more following a five-wicket haul against Waaia, claiming the handful while conceding 30 runs.
Oddly, despite his Kookaburra craft, Dawson’s six-over spell is his first of the season.
With PlayCricket data dating back to the 1998-99 summer, perhaps Numurkah is treating the veteran’s body kindly, and knows it has a trick up its sleeve if it ever needs to be called upon, because the middle to lower order bat has a strong form line with the pill - even if his contribution is sporadic.
Dawson has bowled on just five occasions since 2022-23, the season where he recorded his last five-wicket haul.
A long time in between drinks, but hey, two five-fors in six spells? We’ll say that’s a pretty handy ratio to claim.
In other bowling news, E-grade Karramomus bowler Olivia White made history by becoming the first female to claim a senior wicket at the Bloods.
Off six overs, White bowled a tidy 1-21, the most economical display of any Blood that bowled multiple overs on Saturday.
All tied up
70 overs, 420 balls, 12 wickets falling and 402 runs scored - all for Karramomus and Pine Lodge to finish where they started.
The Bloods and Lodgers couldn’t be split in E-grade, with Pine Lodge’s 7-201 chased down by Karramomus, which lost five wickets on its way to the target, falling a run short of victory.
Needing to protect four runs off the last over, Pine Lodge’s Brett Davis delivered a killer spell at the death, conceding just one run off the bat.
However, a leg bye early on meant the Bloods needed two runs off the final ball, or a single to tie, and when Casey Smith had a big swing and a miss, Smith and Roy Trickey still scrambled through to dive over the opposing popping creases before the Lodgers could hit the stumps with the Kookaburra, recording a bye to add to the total to reach 201.
Agonisingly for both sides, the tie means both clubs are still without wins this summer.
The cellar-dwelling duo would have had this game circled as one to finally get off the mark, but the unlikeliest of results means a victory will have to come against stronger opposition, if not before the pair duel again in round 11, which falls in February next year.