Division 1
Hallora (122) vs. Western Park (3-16): Three late wickets have put a dampener on Western Park’s performance against Hallora, with the Kangaroos well and truly back in the game following their short stint with the ball.
Having crawled their way to 122, Hallora were left with seven overs to send down before stumps, and in that time Caleb Serong was able to dismiss Joel Batson (1), Sanjaya Gangodawila (2) and Sam Batson (9) – with Stephen Boltong left watching at the non-strikers end as his teammates came and went in quick succession.
He remains unbeaten on 1, with Jason Croft 0*, and the pair will no doubt need to regroup and knuckle down in Western Park’s next weekend.
Earlier in the day, it was Sam Batson who made life difficult for the Halloran batsmen, with the young quick continuing his exceptional early season form.
He snared 4-25 from his 17 overs, with Boltong (3-26 off 12) and Croft (1-19 from 18) providing valuable support.
Their parsimonious performance meant that Hallora’s batsmen could never really accelerate the scoring, with Brett Williams’ 30 the only substantial knock of the innings.
Superb century
Drouin (277) vs. Ellinbank: Luke Radford gave a timely reminder of his all-round abilities on Saturday, smashing a superb century against Ellinbank.
Together with knocks of 47 from Trevor Gardiner, and 72 to Damon Healy, the Hawks overcame a sluggish start to post a big first innings total.
Early on Nicholas Fairbank (who finished with 4-75 from his 20 overs) was in excellent form, removing Nick Harper, Jake Harper and Sam Wyatt to have the score reading 3-22.
However, Ellinbank couldn’t capitalise on their early advantage as a 69-run fourth wicket stand steadied the innings.
From this base Radford was able to accelerate the scoring and once he settled at the crease he regularly found the fence and made life difficult for the Ellinbank bowlers.
Dismissed late in the day by Lachlan Pratt – who snared four late scalps to finish with 4-25 – Radford ensured that the Hawks head into day two as heavy favourites, having made their way to 277 from their 79.1 overs of batting.