Toads give United a thorough caning
Vics and captain both right on song
MULGRAVE has emerged as the team to beat in the Cricket Far North Twenty20 competition after another dominant display on Saturday.
The Toads scored 4/161 against United and then managed to restrict their rivals to just 4/75 in response.
Captain Neville Philp was pleased due to the all-round effort of his XI.
“It makes my job easier when everyone is contributing,” Philp said.
“We’re going really well at the moment and each week we are starting to get stronger with boys coming back into the side.
“It helps when you can throw the ball to anyone and the guys in the top six are making runs.”
Mulgrave had scoring contributions from Jake Roach (39), Kuldeep Singh Rana (37) and opener Marcus McGregor-Cassady (27).
The Toads then backed up with the ball.
Although Roach didn’t take a wicket, he finished his four overs with 0-5.
“He’s going along really well considering he missed a couple of games at the start of the season,” Philp said.
“His bowling is pretty sharp and he’s only going to keep getting quicker as he finds his rhythm.”
Norths are the only team to have beaten Mulgrave this year and remained unbeaten in the T20 competition with two wins on Saturday.
Norths hammered Barron River in the morning before enjoying another easy win against United.
Norths captain Chris Stanger, who contributed with bat and ball in the two wins, said he was thrilled to have an unbeaten side at the end of the first round of T20 matches.
“It’s the perfect start and those wins yesterday really helped our net run rate,” Stanger said. it
“The boys are feeling confident and everyone is chipping in, which makes it enjoyable.”
The T20 matches return on December 8, but Cricket Far North turns to 40-over games this Saturday.
“We might change our batting order around a little bit and have some guys in the middle that can bat time, but not too much will change,” Stanger said.
“I think the T20s have given us confidence heading into the longer format. Our bowlers in particular have been getting the job done. I think we’ve bowled first in every game except one and we haven’t had to chase too many big scores.”
The top two T20 sides, Norths and Mulgrave will do battle this Saturday in the first 40-over game of the season.
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TWO sixes from leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed then four wickets from batsman Nic Maddinson proved crucial role reversals as Victoria powered into the domestic one-day final with a 63-run win over Western Australia.
But it could be the secret song Vics skipper Peter Handscomb is playing in his head that gives the home team the edge when they return to the Junction Oval to play Tasmania on Wednesday.
Overlooked for Test selection after a horror run with Australia A in India, Handscomb and Vics opener Marcus Harris rescued their team from 2-7 to help post 332.
Harris earned man of the match honours for his quickfire 73 off 49 balls, including 64 runs in boundaries.
But 80 from Handscomb, his fourth straight half-century after opening the tournament with a duck, proved the cornerstone of the innings and continued a resurgence that has a few elements to it.
Handscomb, dropped despite a Test average of 43, won’t reveal the song he has been singing through his past four innings in which he has racked up 290 runs.
He’s been continually tweaking things and yesterday also took the wicketkeeping gloves, showing he has the extra strings to a bow he hopes will keep him in the international selection discussion.
“I’ve had the same song (in his head) for four innings in a row. The music over the loud speaker got me a few times, I started singing that song instead, I had to bring it back,” he said.