North Sportsman’s v West Gambier
North Sportsman’s suffered their first loss of the Mount Gambier and District Cricket Association season with West Gambier’s day one score of 302 proving out of reach for the Tigers’ batting line-up.
Chasing 302 runs was always going to be a difficult task for the home side and its run chase got off on the wrong foot with Alex Hutton bowled by Bray Stephenson before North could pass 10.
Michael Johnston and Elliot Fisher offered some resistance, but the partnership was brought to an end before it developed into something dangerous, with Johnston caught on 27.
Fisher lost two more partners in quick succession with Nick McInerney and Nicholas Brown both dismissed for four.
Mitch Lewis joined Fisher at the crease and the pair built a strong partnership with Fisher passing the half century mark.
Justin De Jong then struck, bowling Fisher for 52, and delivering a massive blow to North’s hopes.
De Jong struck again with Declan Kenny dismissed for a 10 ball duck, and North slumped further into trouble at 6/115, still requiring 187 with only four wickets remaining.
A massive partnership was required to give North hope, however Lewis was soon out for 36 with Bailey Rothall picking up his first wicket.
West Gambier cleaned up the lower order with relative ease taking 4/5 to close out the North Sportsman’s innings.
Despite 52 from Fisher and 36 from captain Mitch Lewis the Tigers fell well short of the total of 302.
Justin De Jong and Bray Stephenson were the pick of the bowlers for West Gambier picking up three wickets each.
Sam Willis added to his hundred in the first innings with two wickets with the ball, and Bailey Rothall also took two wickets of his own.
After being bowled out within 57 overs North Sportsman’s were sent back in to bat again by West.
The Tigers batted for 19 overs with Alex Hutton the only wicket to fall, caught behind for 14 off the bowling of Justin De Jong.
Michael Johnston ended the day unbeaten in the second innings on 19 and Declan Kenny on 4, with North finishing 1/39.
North Sportsman’s will now turn its attention to bouncing back in the final game before the break when it plays East Gambier who is coming off a big win.
West Gambier will find itself in a top of the table clash with Mil Lel at Frew Park, with the winner sitting top of the table over the break. Mil Lel v Penola
Mil Lel recovered from a dangerous position to score a huge total and chase down the target set by Penola on day one.
After bowling the visitors out for 186 on day one, Mil Lel suffered some early losses and was six down for 66 runs at the end of the first day of play.
With two important batsmen in William Rowland and Archer Virtanen at the crease the pair needed to build a big partnership at the start of day two if Mil Lel was going to chase down Penola’s total.
Rowland and Virtanen proved extremely successful as the pair developed a massive partnership.
Together they took Mil Lel past the 100 mark, before continuing to pass 150.
Rowland brought up his half century along the way as he continued to find the boundary consistently.
Rowland launched a Lewis March delivery out of the oval for his 14th boundary of the innings and third six.
However, March had the last laugh with Rowland attempting to find the boundary again launching in the air and finding Jack Mullan who took a juggling catch.
With Rowland out for 71 Mil Lel only required 22 more runs to pass Penola’s first innings total.
Virtanen was also dismissed before passing the 186 mark, caught LBW by March for 41.
Jack Miller and Darcy Williamson came to the crease and the pair took Mil Lel well past Penola’s total as the lower order piled on the runs.
Miller was dismissed for 25, while Williamson continued to bat as he and Dale Bachmann approached the 250 mark for Mil Lel.
The side fell three runs short of 250 with the final wicket of Williamson for 36 finally bringing Mil Lel’s innings to an end.
Penola got another chance to bat however it was a disastrous innings for the visitors.
Lewis March was the first to go bowled for a duck by Jack Miller, and then Michael Waters was following March soon after, also with a duck.
Miller picked up a second wicket as Damien Wenham became the third Penola batter to be bowled for a duck.
Jack Mullan was the only batsman to have put a run on the board when he was joined by the number five Eli Hunter.
Mullan quickly lost another partner with Hunter caught for one, as Penola fell to a disastrous 4/28.
Nathan Fulton joined Mullan at the crease and the pair were the only Eagles batsmen to show some resistance.
The pair took Penola past 50 and had the side closing in on 100.
Mil Lel delivered a crushing blow with Toby Grigg taking the wicket of Mullan falling one run short of a second 50 for the match.
Grigg then took three more quick wickets with Doyle bowled for a golden duck, before Fulton and Tyler Jones were out within four balls of each other in Grigg’s next over.
Mitchell Little picked up one wicket, taking Ned Skeer for one off of four balls.
Grigg then took the wicket of Curt Evans to wrap up Penola’s innings and complete his five-for.
Penola was bowled all out for 79, which gave them an 18 run lead over Mil Lel.
Mil Lel only required 19 runs to win the match and had little issue chasing the runs down.
Virtanen was run out for a diamond duck, but that was the full extent of the issues that Mil Lel faced in the second innings.
Rowland and Williamson finished off the job with final scores of 16 and two respectively. South Gambier v East Gambier
East Gambier delivered a dominant display in its match against South Gambier at Blue Lake Sports Park.
With South Gambir starting the day 0/12, chasing 235 it did not take East Gambier too long to find its first breakthrough.
Sam Bradbrook’s attempted hook shot off the bowling of Alex Hentschke only travelled as far as Marc Roberts at mid wicket who made no mistakes in taking the catch.
Noah Maxwell made his way out to the middle and edged a ball through the slip cordon for four.
Two balls later Hentschke found the gap between bat and pad for his second wicket of the over.
The very next over Jakob Opie was bowled for 16, and Liam Turley took another wicket with the final ball of the over with Jaggar Geary out for a two ball duck.
South Gambier needed someone to stand up with the bat as it lost quick wickets, however the East Gambier attack was too dangerous.
Jed Sims became Turley’s third wicket of the day after nicking off to Alex Hill behind the stumps.
Stephen Easterbrook and Robert Drenthen threatened to cause the East Gambier bowlers some problems, but were dismissed for 16 and 23 respectively.
East Gambier tore through the lower order with only one of the final four batsmen scoring a run.
South Gambier was bowled all out after 27.3 overs for 77, falling 158 runs of East Gambier’s first innings total.
Alex Hentschke was the pick of the bowlers in the first innings, adding a five-for to his match in which he had already knocked up an unbeaten century.
Liam Turley and Marc Roberts also contributed three and two wickets respectively.
South Gambier was sent back in to bat and the side continued to struggle into the second innings.
South Gambier quickly found itself 2/3 with Bradbrook and Drenthen dismissed early in the innings.
Easterbrook was less successful in the second innings only lasting 11 balls before being caught and bowled by Alex Hentschke.
Emerson Marks then picked up his first wicket of the match, with Alex Hentschke catching Opie on 9.
Connor Little then joined in on the wicket taking action picking up Geary for 1.
South Gambier were once again in serious trouble at five down.
Jed Sims was causing some problems for the bowling side as he found his way to 29.
It would be Marks picking up his second wicket of the day which provided the breakthrough of Sims.
George Reichelt did not stick around for long, with Ben Hentschke bowling him for one off 13 balls, then Hentschke would make it two bowling Maxwell for 17.
The day would finish with South Gambier 8/90, still falling short of East Gambier’s first innings total.
East Gambier collected a comfortable win with Alex Hentschke playing an outstanding match.
Hentschke was the highlight with bat and ball, after his first innings unbeaten hundred, Hentschke matched it with seven wickets with the ball.
