St.Mary’s-Tyntynder have kept their hopes of the perfect premiership winning season alive with a dominant 106-run victory over Nyah District in Friday night’s Kookaburra Cup Grand Final.
The Saints took complete control with the bat in the one-day final, highlighted by a game high 70 not out from man-of-the-match Riley Daniels, posting 191 from their 40 overs.
Daniels played the anchor role for his team to perfection, batting through the innings and rotating the strike to perfection, which allowed big hitters Jack Shannahan (43) and Jake Foster (28) to play their naturally aggressive games.
Against the best team, you have to take every opportunity – and unfortunately for the Demons, they were unable to do so, with a number of dropped catches and misfields proving costly.
In reply, Nyah District started steadily enough, before losing four wickets for just six runs to leave them reeling at 5/35 and their fate was sealed. Eventually the Demons were bowled out in the 35th over for just 85.
St.Mary’s-Tyntynder co-captain Jack Shannahan was proud of his team post-match,but was also quick to point out that there are still bigger fish to fry in season 2021-22.
“Yeah, we’re absolutely rapt with that result,” he said. “We set out at the start of the year to play in three grand finals and to have knocked number two over in pretty convincing fashion is really pleasing..
“Our main aim is obviously the red ball premiership, but I don’t think we have to change a lot from the 40 over game to the 50 over game.
“We showed tonight how good we can be in the 40 over game – different coloured ball, different coloured clothing, but that’s about it.”
The skipper admitted the gme was won with the bat.
“We tried come out and be a little bit aggressive through those middle overs – we still had a lot of wickets in the shed and a lot of quality batsmen still to bat, so that gave us heaps of confidence to just go out and be a bit more aggressive,” Shannahan said.
“As good as our batting is, I think our bowling has been our strength this season – and to have 191 to defend, we were always pretty confident that we’d be able to get the job done.”
Shannahan gave special acknowledgement to the performances of Bailey Talbot (5/19 off 6.5 overs) and Charlie King (3/6 off 5 overs) with the ball, as well as the man-of-the-match.
“The improvement that Riley’s showed, not just over the five or so years he’s been in the A Grade team, but this year alone – to be able to score quickly, which is something he hasn’t been able to do in the past, to go from that, to what he is now, is a real credit to him,” Shannahan said.
For Daniels, the night was a special one not only for his own performance on the big stage, but for what the moment meant for the club that he grew up playing for as a kid.
“It’s awesome to win a premiership with some of your best mates – we’re all different ages but we’re all very similar personalities and we get along really well,” Daniels said.
“A lot of us played junior cricket together for a long time – and yeah we’ve been pretty lucky in adding ‘Shottsy’ (Shannahan) to the team, along with Jake (Foster) and ‘Coddo’ (Bailey Codling), but for the most part we’re all St.Mary’s boys who are playing for the club where our fathers all played at.”
