Batters fall into spinner’s web
By Tim Howard
Another four-wicket burst from Lawrence all-rounder Doug Harris has put his team in pole position against Tucabia Copmanhurst in the Combined First Grade cricket competition at Ellem Oval on Saturday.
Harris, whose 4/7 inspired his team to a come-from-behind outright win last game, took 4/46 as Tucabia ground out 174 in 65.3 overs.
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Tight bowling from Lawrence’s opening attack laid the groundwork for Harris’s success in the middle overs.
Chris Townson, 2/38 and Jarrod Ensbey, 2/28, were miserly in the early overs as Tucabia kept wickets intact but did little damage on the scoreboard.
Openers Tom Cootes and Derek Woods batted for 28 overs before they were parted with the score on 43.
Harris brought on in the 27th over made the initial breakthrough, creating a caught and bowled chance from Cootes on 24, which he accepted.
The next wicket fell in Harris’s next over when first drop Jaye Yardy, 0, hit a catch to Luke Moloney, with score still on 43.
Woods and next batter Rohan Hackett kept their heads down, until the 42nd over when Woods nicked a catch to keeper Dylan Harrison for a grinding 18 runs.
Worse was to follow when veteran batter Matt Pigg was caught from the bowling of Townson for a three-ball duck.
Ironically the fall of wickets led to a boost in the scoring as the aggressive Matt Dougherty briefly lifted the run rate.
A boundary third ball and a six from a Townson no-ball woke up the scorers and Hackett also lifted his scoring rate with a maximum from Harris.
But the fun didn’t last with Harris encouraging Dougherty to hit a catch down Nathan Anderson’s throat for a brisk 18 runs.
The next batter Travis Anderson was also under pressure to keep the scoring rate going.
He clubbed a six from Harris early in his innings, but lost his more patient partner Hackett, in the same over, when Harris slipped a ball through his defence to rattle the stumps.
Easts Shannon Connor put in another marathon spell of 24 overs to take 4/44 against Souths Westlawn on Saturday.
Dylan Lucas, who transferred to Tucabia after Brothers folded earlier in the season, was next in and batted steadily with Anderson who was trying to take the attack up to the bowlers.
He hit a couple of sixes and a four in 25 in a useful partnership with Anderson.
His dismissal, caught by Darby Rouse from the bowling of Luke Moloney, brought Damien Moran to the crease who was enterprising in his short stay, scoring 17 from 14 balls.
But the end came quickly with Ensbey returning to clean up the tail, taking the final two wickets and his only two wickets for the game in his 18 over.
Lawrence only faced one over before stumps were called with Ben Hill 4no and Mark Ensbey yet to face a ball.
Lawrence has good depth in their battling lineup, which will test the Tucabia attack, led by left-arm quick Hackett.
Hackett has made a welcome return to the crease from a long stint out of the game.
Tucabia will also look forward to Lucas bowling for his adopted club.
Also a left-armer he has shown he can be a wicket taker for his old club and in representative cricket for CRCA.
Souths Westlawn has grabbed the upper hand against premiers GDSC Easts on a day of batter carnage at J J Lawrence Field, South Grafton.
Batting first Souths Westlawn were bowled out for moderate 114, which now looks like a winning total on a wicket clearly difficult track to bat on.
Opener Anthony Dickson struck a belligerent 31 and two scores of 20 from Joe Pigg and and Nathan Blanch got the total into three figures.
Easts are in dire straits at 8/37 in reply with Blanch backing up his handy batting with a devastating haul of 5/18 from eight overs.
Easts all rounder Shannon Connor made 16 after earlier bowling 24 overs to take 4/44 in Souths innings.
Luke Hayman was also in the wickets for Easts with 4/38.
At Harwood Oval Harwood have batted themselves into an almost impregnable position, racking up 3/299 from 51 overs against a hapless Coutts Crossing attack.
In reply Coutts has lost 1/34 in a nasty 10-over session before stumps.
Details from the game other than the scores were not available online.
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