Brookfield United v Everton
Community Cricket Championships
Semi Final
15 and 16 March 2025 at Brookfield Showgrounds
Everton won the toss and elected to bowl; a wise decision given that the Brookfield Showgrounds was under more than a metre of water less than a week prior to the match. Play was only possible thanks to a herculean effort by groundies led by Brett Henschell.
Runs were hard to come by for everyone except Finn Read who blasted his way to a solid 51 from 65 balls before falling in the 21st over, with the score on 66. Hugh Ciereszko added a valuable 32 down the order to guide Brookfield to a modest first innings of 128. Liam White toiled hard for 19 overs to claim four top order wickets, while Isaac Dedini chimed in with 4/9 from 10.2 overs to decimate the middle order.
Tea was taken at the break in innings. Exceptional bowling by Hugh Ciereszko and Finn Read restricted Everton to just five scoring shots from the first 12 overs. Three wickets to Read, including two off two at the end of the 12th reduced Everton to 3/6. An unlucky finger injury forced Ciereszko from the field, but the attack was ably taken up by skipper, Matthew Shipp. Shipp tied up one end while Read took the Everton batting lineup apart, with figures of 7/27 from 18.5 overs. Jack Thompson picked up 4 catches behind the stumps, including a cracker up to the stumps off Shipp; Everton all out for 70 a deficit of 58 on first innings.
Finn Read picked up where he left off in the first innings with another fine innings, falling just short of a second 50 for the match. His partnership of 45 from 68 with Shipp took the lead to 134. Read’s dismissal sparked a collapse for Brookfield with the last 8 wickets falling for just 22 runs. Aaron Marshall bowled well to pick up three wickets and Christopher White picked up 3/0 off his final two overs to wrap up the innings for 98; a lead of 156.
With a minimum 37 overs to play in the day, Everton needed to score at 4.22 an over to seal a win. The required run rate jumped to 4.90 when just 10 came from the first seven overs leading into the Tea break; Finn Read and Spencer Cook bowling immaculate lines. Runs remained at a premium after the Tea Break. A bizarre run out off a no-ball, saw Liam White depart in the 18th over with the score on 31. Hayden Spencer then fell to a brilliant, one-handed reflex catch to Jack Thompson off Finn Read and at the end of 22nd and the required run rate jumped to 6.93. Read was on a hat-trick for the second time in the match with a double strike in the 24th over thanks to good catches to Luke Stephen at mid-on and Thompson again. Everton’s task became a little harder at 4/67.
Aydan Connolly took the attack to the bowlers in a run-a-ball 33, but became Read’s 11th victim of the match when Parth Deshmukh somehow latched onto one with an outstretched hand running back at cover. Two balls later, Read made it 12fa when he trapped the new batsman in front with a beautiful yorker; 6/84. Bowling unchanged throughout the innings, Cook and Read, mopped up the tail (Parag Joshi, Luke Stephen and Matthew Shipp taking catches) to claim an outright victory in the 35th over of the innings. Read finishing with amazing match stats of 100 runs and bowling figures of 35.4-8-14-93.
Grand final next week!!
nx Cricket Match Report
Run Sheet
