ROUND six of the Swan Hill District Cricket Association summer finishes tomorrow.
On-lookers at Nyah are likely to see a close contest between the home side and Ultima TUF, while RSL will push for a big win over St Mary’s Tyntynder and Lakers will look to take it up to Woorinen.
Nyah District v Ultima TUF
AN ENTHRALLING contest appears set to unfold at Nyah tomorrow.
Batting first, Ultima TUF started slowly last week, losing the wickets of openers Andrew Abbott and Daniel Leach with just six runs on the board.
Further wickets fell with Toby O’Grady and Kamal Panna being dismissed for 36 and a duck respectively.
With the confidence of Kyle Symons growing however, UTUF were able to hang around and cause some headaches for Nyah District.
Symons eventually went on to record his first A grade hundred — 113 — with the visitors making a confidence-boosting 220.
A couple of bowlers performed reasonably well with the ball, with Alistair Pretty and Ben Shadbolt both claiming three wickets off 13 overs.
For Nyah captain Shane Fleming a win will only come about through improved teamwork in the middle.
“We probably need to bat a little bit better than we have the last few weeks. The key will be to build partnerships and make sure we don’t lose big clumps of wickets — that’s been our problem the last two or three matches,” he said.
“If we can do that, with the emphasis on partnerships, we could go pretty close.”
Fleming said while a strong performance from Nyah’s more experienced players would go a long way to getting the result, everyone needed to play well.
“We need an even contribution from everyone. We all know how to hold a bat, so we should be able to contribute,” he said.
UTUF president Andy Abbott said his side’s younger players had been instrumental in setting a solid total for Nyah to chase.
“We were in trouble early. It was thanks to some good batting form some younger players that we ended up on 220,” he said.
“It’s fantastic to have set them a score, it should pan out to be a good game.”
Raj Kumar and Kamal Panna are likely to open the bowling for UTUF, and Abbott said the fielding side wouldn’t bye eyeing any one wicket in particular.
“Their first 11 should go alright,” he laughed.
“It’s going to be close I reckon and they’re probably thinking the same so we’ll see how we go. It’s a bit of a hard one to read.”
St Mary’s Tyntynder v RSL
WITH a first innings win all but assured, RSL is in a position to push for an outright victory over St Mary’s Tyntynder tomorrow.
St Mary’s were all out for 104 last week, with RSL making 91 off 26 overs before the end of play.
While it finds itself in a strong position ahead of tomorrow’s play, RSL’s top-order failed last week.
Dwayne Hinton was the first to go, caught by Brent Daniels off the bowling of Matt Heffer.
Hinton’s dismissal saw RSL at 1/0 and when Heffer struck again to remove RSL captain Duane Bruton for two, caught and bowled, the visitors appeared to be in some trouble.
A collapse threatened when opener Dwayne Birch was caught by Jared Halligan off the bowling of Robin Sebastian for nine with the score at 3/14.
But Brenton Caldwell and Paul Munro had other ideas.
Caldwell added 31 and Munro 45 to put the visitors in the driving seat at the close of the first day.
Woorinen v Lakers
LAKERS have laid down a worthy challenge to Woorinen ahead of tomorrow’s second day of play at Woorinen.
Big scores to Matt Smith (69), Alan Hatcher (62) and Jason Kirby (48) helped set up a total of 214 for the loss of nine wickets off 70 overs.
Woorinen captain Glenn Violi performed best with the ball for the home side taking 4/22 off 11 overs.
The home side’s first innings had a reasonable start with the score at 1/25 off nine overs at stumps.
Taylor Cameron was the fallen wicket, going out LBW to Alan Hatcher for six.
Still in are Daniel Mangiameli and Tim Free.
Violi and Dean Morpeth will provide valuable experience down the order if required.
Ben Seton-Stewart and Matt Smith also bowled a couple of tight overs for Lakers at the close last week.
• Tooleybuc Manangatang forfeited to Swan Hill last week.
