Wanderers v Met East U19
24 February 2019
Ashgrove Sports Ground Oval 3
A few showers in the morning were not enough to interrupt play between Wanderers and Metropolitan East U19 today at Ashgrove. As you would expect from the cream of the U19 crop, the opposition made it extremely difficult for Wanderers right from the start. Sheldon Stackpole and Byron Gale eked out the runs to be 62 at drinks (17 overs), before Sheldon fell 4 balls later; LBW to the leg-spinner.
Lee Watts and Byron then grafted five from the next seven overs before Byron caved to the weight of 23 consecutive dots; bowling and fielding was exceptional!
After 10 overs in the 60s, Wanderers emerged and began to accelerate thanks mainly to some lusty hitting by Lee Watts. Then, a middle order collapse when 3/102 suddenly became 8/112 in less than six overs. Macca Hughes, Josh Gittens, Josh Neill and evergreen Spud Murphy, bit the bullet and added some entertainment at the end of the innings to drag Wanderers to an unlikely 161 from 49.4 overs; the innings called short when Neill was struck a painful blow and could not continue.
Met East got off to a lively start with openers Dasham Grewal and Robert Eustace in sparkling form and running between wickets with alacrity. The partnership realized 77 from 86 balls before Palam Singh struck, then struck again in his next over to make it 2/82. Another fine partnership of 46 between Eustace and Thomas Keast placed Met East in a commanding position before Eustace was brilliantly stumped by Paddy Cotter off the effervescent Jack Hogarth; the first of three stumpings for Paddy.
Keast remained to partner with Dylan Henderson to equal the scores at 161 before Paddy’s second stumping off Josh Gittens claimed his wicket. The target was reset to 220 which may have been too far when the next 3 wickets fell for just 5 runs. Lee Watts taking a blinder at slip off Troy Robbins, Paddy Cotter another stumping off Gittens and Jack Hogarth one overhead off Josh.
Noah Percy’s clever cameo, with good support from Aidan Lee and Kahbir Panschal realized the revised target in the 49th over.
Well done to Met East and good luck in your carnival in Mackay.
