NSW Metro v Victoria Metro
Cricket Australia U19 Male National Championships
7 to 14 April 2022, Mackay
Round 1, 7 April 2022 at Harrup Park 2 - George Gorrie Oval
A few clouds, but an otherwise brilliant day at Harrup Park for the opening day of the Cricket Australia U19 Male National Championships.
NSW won the toss and elected to bowl. The decision seemed to be the correct one with opening bowlers Jack Nisbet and Callum Bladen extracting good bounce. Bladen claimed the first two wickets when edges found their way into the gloves of skipper Lachlan Shaw in the second and sixth overs. Victoria rallied via Harrish Kannan and opener Tom Mileto who posted a 3rd wicket 33 from 41 balls before Shaw took his third catch to dismiss Mileto off William Salzmann an over before drinks.
Kannan was out shortly after drinks when Joel Davies accepted a sharp return catch; Victoria 4/54. A very slow over rate was corrected during Davies spell of mainly two minute overs which were difficult to score off. Consequently, the 5th wicket partnership took 55 balls to reach 20 and ended when a frustrated Jagadeswara Koduru top edged one to mid-off where Davies took a fine running catch off Josh Seward. William Townsend and Jai Lemire steadied the ship for Victoria, seeing out a superb 10/1/1/24 from Davies and guiding their team to 110 at Drinks without further loss.
Townsend and Lemire accelerated after drinks bringing up a 50 partnership from 71 balls in the 37th over. Townsend brought up his 50 with a six from the first ball of the 44th over and was out next ball when Davies took his second catch off Seward. The partnership of 89 from 110 balls was just the rescue mission Victoria needed. Lemire’s 50 came up a few overs later during a run-a-ball partnership of 27 with Marcus Jackman, who was out in the 49th over lofting into the outfield to be caught by Patrick Xie off Salzmann. Lemire’s fine innings of 66 came to an end on the penultimate ball of the innings when a second run just wasn’t there. A six off the last ball by Oliver Jenkins catapulted Victoria to 213; an unlikely score from 5/74 at the half-way mark.
In the chase, the NSW start was eerily similar to their opponents. Wickets fell in the second and sixth overs to Max Birthisel, but instead of catches to the keeper, catches were taken at gully by Angus Newman. A catch at slip by Spencer Wood off Thomas Nelson made it 3/22 in the ninth and NSW were in trouble. Nelson and Birthisel were bowling beautifully but were surprisingly replaced in overs 10 and 11! The pressure came off and although Keeper Lemire picked up a catch of Ikroop Dhanoa’s first ball just before drinks, NSW dominated from that point.
Spectators were treated to some brilliant batting and running between wickets by Joel Davies and Jordan Watson. The partnership reached 50 in 73 balls, 100 in 128 balls, 150 in 179 balls and finished undefeated on 171 from 198 balls. Davies fine performance with the ball and in the field was capped off with a fine 50 from 77 balls in the 35th over. Watson reached the milestone a few overs later, also from 77 balls. In the end, NSW coasted to victory with three overs to spare.
Other Round 1 Results:
ACT/NSW Country 158 (McTaggart 65; Voss 3/15) def. by Tasmania 4/160 (Wynwood 58; Cahill 1/14)
Northern Territory 5/223 (Naqvi 78; Garner 2/42) def. by Victoria Country 9/228 (Buxton 69; Smith 3/43)
QLD Metro 6/260 (McFadyen 102; Ryan 4/51) def. QLD Country 88 (Emmerson 33; Stockdale 4/9)
South Australia 2/154 (Arnold 66*; Parsons 1/10) def. NSW U17 153 (Konstas 78; Young 3/16)
