All-round effort sees under 16s take title
On a cold and wet Sunday, the Warragul and District under 16 side faced off against Leongatha in the Gippsland Cricket League final.
Leongatha was the only team to have beaten Warragul over the course of the GCL rounds.
The day started well with Caleb Serong winning the toss and electing to bat. Alphie Hosie and Matt Bow were sent in.
In very trying conditions with several rain delays, Alphie and Matt kept their patience and worked through the opening spell to see Warragul off to a great start. Both Matt and Alphie waited for the right ball to keep the score moving, but were also patient in defence.
In a wonderful opening partnership Matt and Alphie both passed 50. Alphie was the first wicket to fall, run out for 52.
This saw Caleb Serong come to the crease. Matt and Caleb continued to push the score along when Caleb, after a very good catch, was dismissed for 10 runs.
Eddie McGillivray was next in. Matt’s wicket fell soon after for an excellent 55 runs. The score was now 3/136.
Eddie was dismissed for two when he was caught and bowled.
A few quick dismissals and the pressure was back on. Warragul, who were now 4/143 with two new batmen at the crease in Jai Newcombe and Will Gown.
Jai and Will started patiently, both careful in the tricky conditions. Together they put on 60run partnership before Will was run out for a well-made 20.
With the score now 5/203 with about five overs to go, Noah Jarred was sent in with a clear message to have a go, and he did, going hard and long only to be caught, by a very good catch, in the outfield for two runs.
Meanwhile Jai continued to push the score along. Patty Mulqueen joined Jye but was dismissed for two.
Josh Horsburgh was next in and he played a key role at the end, turning over singles to give Jai the strike.
At the end of 50 overs Warragul had put an imposing score on of 7/239 off 50 rain interrupted overs.
Jai‘s inning was a patient inning when it needed to be, but also saw him score freely, finishing with 69 not out in a man of the match performance.
After a shortened lunch break Warragul came out to defend their total. Caleb and Brayden Ridler opened the bowling.
Leongatha took some early risks in an attempt to push the score along and Celeb broke through early in the inning to claim the first wicket to have Leongatha 1/1.
Brayden continued to bowl well putting pressure on the batsmen, but it was Caleb who broke through again for his second wicket. Leongatha were 2/14.
Josh Horsburgh came on to bowl to replace Caleb. Josh (0/17) continued to apply pressure.
Brayden (1/16 off five) was next to break through, claiming an important wicket of the Leongatha captain.
After a period of free scoring where Leongatha were putting pressure back on the bowlers, Charlie Wans and Korey Carrison came. They were able to begin to slow the scoring rate down again.
Aaron Bardwell from Leongatha was batting well and looking to hold down an end when Charlie Wans broke through in his second over to claim this important wicket. This saw Leongatha 4/66 in about the 12th over.
Charlie and Korey continued to apply pressure to the batsmen. After four overs Korey (0 for 23 off four) was given a spell and Caleb retuned to finish his second spell. After two spells Caleb finished with 2/24 off six.
Charlie continued to bowl tight and was rewarded with a second wicket on the last ball of his sixth over, with the score on 5/98 after 23.
Leongatha were still on target based on score however wickets left could be a problem.
Matt Blanch and Eddie McGillivray were bought into the attack. Both Matt and Eddie bowled a very tight line. Matt was rewarded in his very first over taking a wicket.
Eddie bowled very well in partnership with Matt. After six overs Eddie finished with 0/15 off 6.
While Eddie continued to bowl tight, Matt, who was bowling a very good line and with good pace, put the clamps on Leongatha. Matt finished with 4/4 off six, with only one run scored from the bat.
This was excellent bowling from Matt and he and Eddie had a wonderful bowling partnership of four wickets off 12 overs for about 19 runs.
Leongatha were in real trouble and were now 9/122.
Charlie came back on after Matt and continued to bowl very well, finishing with 2/23 off eight.
Noah Jarred (1/4 off 1.4), in what could be his final game for WDCA, was handed the ball by Caleb and took the final wicket of the game to give the WDCA under 16 team a great victory.
This game saw an all-round team effort from all the boys.
The Association congratulated all the boys who have all played their part in a very successful GCL season that has seen the WDCA under 16 and under 18 teams go back-to-back champions.
Special mention was also made to the under 18 team, who have now been GCL and country week champions an amazing four times in the past five years.