Lusatia Park Cricket Club Round 2.
First XI:
Heading to Templeton this week, our First XI batted first.
Opening pair and brothers Lochie and Corey Winter-Annette got us off to a great start with a 75 run partnership, including 55 off 48 balls from Lochie with eight fours and two sixes.
Lochie and Corey were dismissed within quick succession, clearly not wanting to be apart from each other for too long.
Good contributions in the middle order from Tim Diggins and Lucas Parker, and some quick runs at the death saw the total reach 9-189 from the 40 overs.
Templeton started their innings very strongly, an opening stand of 116 made it a difficult task to win from there.
The team fought hard however and were right in the hunt until the end, Matt Robinson showed he’s pretty good in the field even without the gloves, taking three catches.
Despite the fightback and with the game going down the wire, Templeton were able to make the runs in the 38th over.
First Women’s XI:
Hiking out to Canterbury this week our Women’s XI were looking for redemption from a tough loss last week.
Batting first again, Steph McConnell continued her good form with 18, while Nikki Philpot goes from strength to strength; her hard work is paying off, this week upping her high score to 12.
Caitlyn Parker made up for her duck last week with a quickfire 42 off 40, and Bocky chimed in for 18 at the end to post a total of 7-122.
A good start was made with the ball by Stacey Mercuri taking and early wicket and bowling economically; with figures of 1-13 off her six overs.
With wickets from Caitlyn, Mac, and Bocky we were in the hunt with the score at 4-71 but Canterbury was able to steady and made the runs in the 31st over.
Second XI:
Round 2 saw the Second XI taking on Healesville at home.
Our captain won the toss and much to the annoyance of his players, chose to bowl.
Bowling was tight but early wickets were hard to come by.
Matt McConnell getting our only one before drinks.
Stephen Morgan was delivering his usual hand grenades, frustrating the batters brilliantly, and finally managed a wicket with a stumping on the second last ball of his eight over spell.
Paul Broussard came on at a tricky time and managed two wickets as well.
Healesville scored 5-220 from their 40 overs.
Our batting started off shakily with Dean Worrley losing his wicket early, but inventive batting from Matt McConnell (41) and the usual reliance of Michael Dwyer (27) saw us 1-80 shortly before drinks.
When Matt was dismissed, it started a bit of a collapse and before long we were 5-94.
Despite a little wag in the tail, we only managed 148, all out in the 34th over, Healesville coming away winners.
Third XI:
Back at Wickhams Road for our Threes again this week, facing Croydon North.
Batting first, Ben Hubbard opened and batted with poise despite losing his opening partner early, putting away the bad balls, Marty White chipped in with 19, and at 2-60, the innings was evenly poised.
Enter the evergreen Lee Philpot, who along with Ben, put on an unbeaten 200 run partnership, Ben ended the innings on 94* off 87 balls and Lee a commanding 120* off 99, combined they hit 34 boundaries.
Our innings finished at 2-265 from 36 overs.
With such a large total to chase, Croydon North were never really in the game, and it didn’t help their cause that Dan Madsen cleaned up their opener with the first ball of the innings.
Contributions were even from all the bowlers, special mention to 13-year-old Jacob Ahmad, who was unlucky not to snare a wicket, ending with 0-17 off six with three maidens.
Skipper Stuart Parker cleaning up with 3-6, ending the Croydon North innings, who ended up being dismissed for 91, a mammoth 174 run win for our Third XI’s first win for the season.
