A SECOND-innings bowling spell of just six overs has led Barham-Koondrook to their ninth win of the Swan Hill District Cricket Association season.
Taking on fourth-placed Wandella, the Raiders were on the front foot from the get-go, having won the toss and elected to bat.
Coming in at number three, Garry Lolicato showed his intent from his first ball, smoking a cover drive for four after Lance Davidson was dismissed by a spectacular catch from Kaine O’Connell.
Eight more fours and a six followed in Lolicato’s innings as he top-scored with 61 runs off 71 balls.
But when Lolicato was caught by Ryan Barnes off Bohden McKnight’s bowling, the Bombers might’ve thought scoring would slow.
Instead, Lachlan Laursen decided to turn up the scoring and smashed a quick fire half-century off just 22 balls.
His innings pushed the Raiders’ total to 194 from 43 overs.
Peter Moore was the pick of the Bombers’ bowlers, taking 3/35 from his 12.5 overs, while Daniel Higgs and Ethan and Bohden McKnight all took two wickets each.
The Raiders’ opening bowlers started off the innings on a high, both Garry Lolicato and Chameera Akurugoda taking an early wicket to have Wandella at 2/42.
It was first-change bowler Riley D’Silva who tore through the top and middle order of Wandella and devastated their chase.
D’Silva’s first over was a ripper, stifling Wandella opener Samuel Copland before bowling him with the final ball of his wicket-maiden opening over.
Three overs later, D’Silva did exactly the same to Gregory Dickson, and after his whirlwind six-over spell was complete, D’Silva had figures of 5/15 including two wicket-maidens.
A late batting-cameo from Ethan McKnight added an extra 37 to the Bombers’ total but wasn’t enough, as Wandella were dismissed for 149, handing the Raiders a 45-run victory.
A one-sided affair played out between St Mary’s and Swan Hill as the Bulldogs piled on the runs against a Swans side who gave it their best.
A 74-run first wicket partnership between Jonty Chaproniere and Connor Power was dominated by the former, Chaproniere playing shots all around the ground to top-score for St Mary’s with 81.
Everything was going right for the Bulldogs, skipper Nathaniel Holmes-Brown making 45 runs off 30, Austin McKerrow notching up an unbeaten 30 and Riley Daniels and Jack Shannahan each making 27.
Koben Ryan had an impressive showing from number eight, scoring 47 runs off just 27 balls.
Ian Schodde was the Swans’ best bowler, taking 4/63, while Mitchell Bennett contributed well with 2/33 off six overs.
Things went from bad to worse for the Swans, finding themselves at 1/1 in the second over after the dismissal of Alan Hatcher off the bowling of Kobe Ryan.
Ryan followed up an impressive first innings with a tight spell of bowling, claiming 2/10 off five overs as the Bulldogs’ bowlers tore through the Swans.
Riley Daniels was the other St Mary’s bowler with two wickets, while Robin Sebastian, Jack Shannahan and Connor Power all took a wicket for single digits during their spells.
Sam Coolidge top-scored for the Swans with 16 while Ciao Wilson wasn’t far behind on 14.
It took Woorinen just 12 overs to chase down the total of 88 that was set by Ultima TUF, after Darren Rushton and Gurmander Singh did their thing in the first innings.
The pair had the Roodogs at 1/1 in the third over after Rushton caught Mitchell Seton-Stewart off his own bowling.
But Seton-Stewart’s fellow opener, Aydan Symons, attempted to get things back on track for his side, top-scoring with 37.
Symons struggled to find support as wickets fell around him, and Josh Waldron’s 12 and Jordan King’s 15 were the only other scores that reached double digits for Ultima TUF.
Rushton finished with 4/32 and Singh with 3/15 while Stefan Mangiameli and Paul Johnson pitched in with 2/17 and 1/22 respectively.
After starting their innings at 1/0 after Connor Fletcher was dismissed for a duck, the Tigers didn’t look back.
Rushton followed up his first innings by top-scoring with 36, while Jason Mangiameli and Gurmander Singh were in the middle as the winning runs were hit.
RSL will be relieved to have claimed a two-wicket victory against Murrabit as RSL chased 114 in 30 overs.
Batting first, Zeb Hein and Toby Gray started things off well for Murrabit as they scored 31 and 27, but it was the RSL bowlers who found the upper hand.
Patrick Caldwell just pipped Oscar Hier for the innings’ best figures, Caldwell with 4/35 and Hier 4/48.
After the dismissal of Todd Day-Henery, Brenton Caldwell came to the crease and, following the dismissal of Jett Hinton, he was joined by his brother Patrick with the Blues at 7/76.
With Murrabit right in the game, the pair put together 30 runs to swing the momentum back in their favour, Brenton finishing off the innings with a six and top-scoring for RSL with an unbeaten 27.
Brodie Hall bowled fantastically for Murrabit, taking 3/9, while Blake Watts took 3/47.
