Lusatia Park Cricket Club Round 1:
1st XI:
A nice way to start the season back at our home ground of Woori Yallock Recreation Reserve hosting Croydon Ranges 2XI.
It was the bowlers that had the first crack, with solid opening spells from Terry Bennett and Tyson Gaskett who each took wickets.
Angus Gelly impressed in his first outing for the club taking a wicket and bowling well.
Lucas Parker was the cleanup man for the bowlers, taking 3/15 off his four overs.
Croydon Ranges finished with 7/176.
The batting innings was dominated by a massive ton from skipper Tim Diggins, who controlled the innings from the fifth over, ending with an unbeaten 113 off 103 deliveries, winning the game in the 39th over with a total of 5/177.
1st Women’s XI:
Our third home game at Woori Yallock for the weekend saw our Women’s side take on Montrose.
Despite early solid batting from Steph McConnell, we were struggling early, with skipper Caitlyn Parker being dismissed on a golden duck.
Nikki Philpot and Georgia Parker rescued the innings with excellent batting, including Nikki’s first four, before Sammy Maryanto put on a clinic, hitting an unbeaten 62, ably supported by Ella Diggins in a partnership of 61, pushing the total after our 36 overs to 6/149.
In the bowling innings an early run out gave the team some hope, but a dominant batting display saw the Montrose team pass the total one down in the 21st over.
2nd XI:
Our 2nd XI fielded an impressive team that took on Montrose 4th XI and headed to the tiny Keith Hume Fraser Reserve.
Winning the toss and batting first, a run slog ensued on the small ground.
Despite losing Chris Reynolds early, who was unluckily bowled off his own helmet, Dean Worrley and Michael Dwyer took the bowlers to task with an 168 run partnership.
Dean scoring 93 and “Choof” hit 88.
Solid contributions from the rest of batting lineup who had a license to swing after the positive start saw the score reach 7/301 after our 40 overs.
The bowling was on top from the start, Jai Gupta instrumental with 3/40, unlucky not to have more with some juggled dropped chances.
Jacob Frankovic’s first wicket for the club was a highlight, dismissing their number five with a caught behind with his first ball.
In the end the opposition were dismissed for 121 in the 23rd over as of every one of our bowlers contributed with wickets.
3rd XI:
The 3rd XI also got their first game at home in Round 1, hosting Boronia 4th XI at Wickhams Road.
Boronia batted first and got off to a flyer, an unbeaten 100 run opening stand until Marty White broke the partnership, as he and captain Stuart Parker stemmed the flow of runs with some tight bowling.
Marty ended up with 2/37 from his seven and Stuart 1/23.
Boronia managed 4/199 from the 36 overs.
Tight bowling from Boronia saw the runs hard to get, and the wickets tumbled.
Solid efforts from father/son duo Ben and Tayte Hubbard saw them compile a 35 run partnership, and previous most ducks award winner
Joel Pratt scored his highest total with an unbeaten eight runs.
Boronia were unable to bowl us out in the end, but we fell short with the total at 36 overs being 8-86
U14:
Our u14s side took on St Andrews at Woori Yallock in their first outing of the year.
We batted first and got off to a flyer with Jacob Ahmad hitting a blistering 23 off 17 before being run out.
Solid contributions and retirements from a few of the boys, including 22 from Alexander Mason, saw the total after our 25 overs of 5/116.
Good tight bowling and impressive fielding from everyone as well as crucial wickets to youngsters Daniel Philpot and Maxwell Diggins saw us pull off a victory with St Andrews falling short at 5/107 at the close of their innings.
