ULTIMA-TUF have turned this year’s Swan Hill & District Cricket Association finals series on its head with a six-wicket victory over premiership favourites St Mary’s Tyntynder at the weekend.
The Saints were in trouble right from the first ball, with Jordan King finding the edge of Bailey Codling’s bat to have the first St Mary’s wicket back in the shed without a run on the board. The innings only went downhill from there, with the Saints losing skipper Austin McKerrow a couple of overs later without scoring – and with both opening batsmen left sitting on the pond.
A brief rearguard action from Jake Foster (19) and Jack Shannahan (19) gave the visitors some hope of a fight back – that was until the introduction of left-arm quick Josh Waldron, who ripped through the St Mary’s Tyntynder middle order, with the Saints at one point losing four wickets for just three runs.
Speaking with The Guardian following their win, Ultima-TUF captain Kade Benfield said he couldn’t have been more pleased with his bowler’s performance.
“Our belief was pretty high after those first couple of wickets and it just grew from there – we had a pretty strong team in yesterday and getting a wicket with first ball was good, but it was just one of those days where all our catches stuck and things just went our way,” Benfield said.
“Josh (Waldron) has been fantastic for us, especially after the Christmas break – yesterday was probably the first time he hasn’t made a start with the bat, but he’s been bowling sensational as well.”
“Being a left-armer, he just provides a bit of variety to our attack and there’s not many quality left-armer seamers in the competition.”
The Roodogs’ victory on Saturday was the first time they had beaten St Mary’s Tyntynder since round four, 2013-14 – and while Woorinen’s win over RSL at the weekend has seemingly torpedoed Ultima-TUF’s finals hopes, the result has also left the Saints vulnerable.
With just one round remaining in the home-and-away season, St Mary’s Tyntynder find themselves in third on the ladder, equal with Wandella (second) and Woorinen (fourth) on 48 points. As the Bombers and Tigers are set to lock horns this weekend, that leaves the Saints in a must-win game against RSL if they want to finish in the top two and earn the right to host their semi-final.
Unfortunately for Ultima-TUF, who are sitting fifth on 39 points, it also leaves them requiring an unlikely outright win in order to leapfrog their way into the top four – an outcome that Benfield says his team will be trying for.
“We can still make the finals if we get an outright win – however that’s pretty unlikely in these 50-over matches,” Benfield said.
“We’ll definitely be trying to attack the game next week (against Nyah District) – that’s how I’d like to play as captain, try and be attacking.”
“It’s the only way we can make the finals and that’s the whole point of the season, we have no choice but to go out and play that way.”
St Mary’s Tyntynder were eventually dismissed for just 90, with the Roodogs getting the job done inside the 27th over. Waldron would end the innings with five wickets to spearhead the attack, with Jordan King and Ben Shepherd both taking two wickets each in support.
“We were pretty up and about after that, but we knew the job was only half done and we still had to bat well to get the runs because they are about as good a bowling attack as you can get,” Benfield said.
“We lost a couple of early ones, but it was Shep (Shepherd) and Symo (Kyle Symons) that won it for us.”
“Their partnership took the game away from them pretty much and got us to within about 25 runs or so when Shep went out.”
Indeed, the third wicket partnership of Shepherd and Symons was the difference – with the Ultima-TUF batsmen putting on a 57-run stand for the third wicket to guide their team to within sight of the upset victory.
While Shepherd (33) would be dismissed before the job was finished, Symons (31) was then joined by the in-form Mitch Seton-Stewart (33 not out) to finish the job, with the Roodogs eventually passing the Saints total four down.
The other two A-Grade games of round 12 went according to script – even with a couple of fantastic individual performances out at Woorinen.
Brenton Caldwell wound the clock back, taking 7-26 from 13 overs for RSL to have the reigning premiers in all sorts of trouble at 7 for 50 – only to see Marcus Mangiameli and Darren Rushton put on a 104-run partnership for the eighth wicket and pull Woorinen out of the fire. Mangiameli would end his innings on 83, just 17 runs shy of his maiden century, guiding the Tigers to a very respectable 175.
After letting Woorinen off the hook, the Blues were unable to regain the momentum and they were eventually dismissed for 121 in the 44th over – with Robert Rush showing how dangerous he can be with ball in hand, taking 6 for 42.
The ball certainly dominated the bat in the final match of the round, with ladder leaders Nyah District recording a comfortable eight-wicket win over Swan Hill.
Jackson Hopkins took 5-27 and Drew Lloyd 4-15 as the Demons steamrolled the Swans for just 66, before passing Swan Hill’s meagre total just two wickets down inside 20 overs – with stand in skipper Dean Harrop blasting a quick fire 32 not out to guide his team home.
A GRADE RESULTS – ROUND 12
ST MARY’S TYNTYNDER 10-90 (Josh Waldron 5-11) lost to ULTIMA-TUF 5-112 (Ben Shepherd 37, Mitch Seton-Stewart 33*, Kyle Symons 31, Corey Daniels 4-34)
WOORINEN 10-175 (Marcus Mangiameli 83, Darren Rushton 46, Brenton Caldwell 7-26) defeated RSL 10-121 (Ryan Hinton 43, Stuart Patterson 39, Robert Rush 6-42, Stefan Mangiameli 3-40)
SWAN HILL 10-66 (Jackson Hopkins 5-27, Drew Lloyd 4-15) lost to NYAH DISTRICT 2-67 (Dean Harrop 32*)
