Scorching seamers hand Students T20 silverware

It threatened to be a quick affair after Old Students elected to bat, with livewire Jayden Gagliardi falling early and the remaining top-order vanishing as the hosts fell to 4-38.

Nate Earl, in at five, brought might and power to the crease as his four sixes reinvigorated the contest, slicing through a 61-run stand with skipper Ryan Boswell for the fifth wicket.

In the end, seven of the nine Students batters found the rope at least once in setting Karramomus 147 to win, a more than satisfactory total after their inauspicious start.

Travis Guppy, expected to control proceedings off his bat rather than with the ball, got straight to work in the chase with four boundaries as his opening stand with Alec Maguire put up 45.

However, the wheels would shortly thereafter fall off.

Guppy was the first to drop, holing out to Boswell just shy of the boundary, before the Bloods’ other main threat was extinguished two balls later when Andrew Hawker skied one to be out for a duck.

What followed was an agonising 52-ball drought between boundaries that left virtually no doubt Students would claim the shield.

With Spencer Dickins having put the hard yards in early, the bulk of Karramomus’ line-up was left at the mercy of Joban Sandhu — and did he take his chances.

Once Maguire fell for 17, the rest was history as Old Students took turns mercilessly shredding any resistance left.

Karramomus would lose their next six wickets for 11 runs in falling helplessly to an unwinnable 8-86 in no time flat, with five batters facing three balls or fewer.

The job was mathematically done with an over to spare and Boswell revelled in what became a comprehensive triumph.

“I thought our bowlers were superb,” Boswell said.

“It started off with Ben (O’Brien) not getting the wickets he deserved, but the pressure built and Joban and Spencer were able to capitalise with a fantastic effort.

“We really worked hard to restrict the run-scoring and that created opportunities for us; it was really well-executed.”

Heads were a chance of dropping given the impressive start Karramomus made to their chase, but Boswell maintained that his side simply had to keep the faith.

“(Travis Guppy) is a superb batsman, but he’ll always give you a chance,” Boswell said.

“The message was pretty strong from me to the boys that we needed to stay in it as long as it took to get the breakthrough.

“That really enabled us to contain them later and create chances.

“The number one emphasis of mine as captain is teamwork and it showed right across the board; it was just a complete team effort.”

Boswell lavished praise on Sandhu, recognised as best-on-ground in the victory, with praise while acknowledging the pivotal role Earl had played in giving his bowlers something to work with.

“Nate’s innings resurrected our early slump and was the catalyst in us getting our score,” Boswell said.

“It was a great effort with a couple of good efforts around him.

“Joban’s a personal favourite; I’ve coached him in under-16 and he’s a fantastic kid.

“He’s always wanting to learn and listen. I’m just really proud of him getting reward for his effort.”