By Rob Boxell
What a start to the season! With the lower grades called off due to the lack of grounds available, it was just the first XI up this week. With a big pre-season under the belt of the Yarra Junction Cricket Club, and a side with a few fresh faces big things were on the horizon. Daylight savings being just a day away meant an early start for the boys as they sought to begin their premiership campaign.
Bomma won the toss and chose to bat first, sending Ryan Carter and second XI skipper Marcel Kocher out to open. A shaky start saw the boys quickly fall to 2 for 13 in the early overs. This bought last season’s coach, Travis Nightingale, to the crease to join Marcel. Marcel and Trav were able to knock the ball about and put together a partnership of 61 to dig us out of trouble before Trav was dismissed for 24. This brought AJ Druitt to the crease, at only 15 years of age making his first XI debut.
The partnership between AJ and Marcel was short-lived as Marcel departed for a classy 33. Out came Yarra Junction’s illustrious leader.
When Bomma stepped onto the pitch, he looked a man possessed. Bludgeoning the ball to all parts of the ground without any fear. With AJ riding shotgun and turning the strike over nicely, the score raced to 154 before the 77-run partnership between AJ and Bomma came to an end. AJ had been bowled for 14 in what was a sign of things to come for the young man. Bomma continued taking the long handle to anyone that tried to bowl to him before finally holing out on the boundary for 68 runs off 39 balls, including seven 4s and three 6s. Yarra Junction’s innings came to an end not long after, finishing 8 for 177 off their 40 overs. A defendable total but it wasn’t going to come easy.
It was newcomer Jordan Poynton and Rhys Matthews that took the new pill, keeping things tight early on. Jordan got the initial breakthrough with the final ball off his fifth over, caught by Bomma. The second wicket came just a few overs later as Jordan repaid the favour, taking the catch of Bomma’s bowling. The score is now 2 for 41 after 14 overs. Opposition captain and former Sri Lankan cricketer, Andy Solomons threatened to take the game away from us until he was caught by an incredible catch behind the wickets from Marcel, reminding everyone why he’s one of the best fielders the club has seen in the past decade.
South Warrandyte was able to put together another partnership until Trav came along and did what he has always done with the ball and get the wickets when we needed them. Another wicket to
Trav saw the score at 5 for 150 with 7 overs to go. As the game etched closer to an end, a couple of wickets in quick succession gave us hope but sadly it wasn’t to be. We fell three wickets short with 13 balls left to bowl.
We’ll be back on the training track Tuesday and Thursday starting from 5:30pm onwards, ready to come back with a bang this Saturday.
Yarra Junction 8/177 (K Bomford 68, M Kocher 33, D Gibbs 4/40) def by South Warrandyte 7/179 (T Peter-Budge 51, D Wilson 44, T Nightingale 2/31)
