THE WDEA Works Saints and Stihl Shop Roodogs are leading the way as the only undefeated teams after the opening weekend of the McDonald’s T20 competition.
While the Saints entered this year’s edition as one of the flag favourites, the Roodogs have certainly surprised the competition, having beaten last season’s two-day grand finalist’s, the Beverford Tavern Demons, last Thursday evening – before causing a shock upset against the highly fancied Phones R Us Blues at the weekend.
Although still early days, the win over the Blues is the one that has made the competition reconsider their preseason predictions for the Roodogs. It wasn’t just the fact that they won the game either, but the manner in which they did it – chasing down a massive score of 150, and the winning runs coming off the final ball of the game.
The Blues would have felt very confident of getting the job done at the half way point, with Brenton Caldwell leading the way with 58 not out, which came off the back of scoring 62 not out in the Phones R Us Blues earlier win over the Tyrell Cricket Swans.
An opening partnership of 67 between former Blue Ben Shepherd (35) and the elevated Josh Waldron (43) set the game alight, before skipper Kade Benfield (24) and another former Blue in Luke Doolan (17) came in and kept the momentum going.
The day wasn’t all bad for the Blues however, as they made light work of the Tyrell Cricket Swans in the early afternoon game at Gurnett Oval. Again, flexing their muscles with the bat, the Blues amassed a massive 185 for the loss of just one wicket from their 20 overs, with captain Ryan Hinton batting through the innings to score 91 not out, receiving support from the previously mention Caldwell with 62 not out.
The Swans struggled with the ball, bowling far too many full tosses and short balls, which both Hinton and Caldwell dined out on. In reply, the Swans were gallant, but unsuccessful, scoring 9 for 102. Cal Noonan batted well for 36 off 35 balls, but with a five-wicket haul to Michael Harrower, the Tyrell Cricket Swans were never in the game.
After defeating the Blues on Thursday evening – and then taking care of the reigning premiers on Saturday, the WDEA Works Saints are the other team that finds themselves undefeated through the first three rounds.
The Saints’ performances with the ball have been the difference, having restricted two very good batting line-ups to less than 100 runs in each game. While Nathaniel Holmes-Brown and Corey Daniels have both started the season in great form with the new ball, it’s Charlie King who has been the most economical, having been hit for just 25 runs from the 48 balls he’s bowled so far across both games.
In what was a weekend of big upsets, the Tyrell Cricket Swans surprised everyone by beating the league newcomers, the Autopro Bombers, on Saturday evening.
Having suffered a heavy loss to the Blues in the earlier game, the Swans came out hard with the bat, with Alan Hatcher and Cal Noonan putting on a 77-run opening partnership – and would eventually go on to post a more than competitive 4 for 126.
Sebastian Linssen and Andrew Clark then did the early damage, taking early wickets and having the Bombers reeling at 4 for 16, before a late middle order revival saw the newcomers close out their innings at 7 for 101.
Out at Nyah, the Beverford Tavern Demons walked away from their two games with an even record, having suffered a three-wicket loss to the Bombers in their early game on Saturday afternoon, before extracting revenge against the Pizza Kitchen Tigers under lights.
Bowling first against the Tigers, it was the Demons’ youngsters who got the job done, with four wickets from Cooper Andrews, three from Drew Lloyd and two from Jackson Hopkins – with the home side eventually bowling the Pizza Kitchen Tigers out for just 78 runs in the last over of the innings.
The Demons made hard work of the run chase however, taking until the third last ball of their innings to hit the winning runs, with Marcus Mangiameli almost becoming the unlikely hero, taking 3 for 8 from his four overs.
It’s with the bat where the Demons will have to improve if they want to make a charge at the T20 Grand Final, after managing just 67 runs in their earlier game against the Autopro Bombers. Scores such as those won’t win many games, no matter how good the bowlers bowl and for the Beverford Tavern Demons, they simply must put more runs on the board next weekend.
With another double-header round of matches scheduled for next weekend, by this time next week the finals for the McDonalds T20 competition should really start to take shape, in what is already promising to be a very exciting summer of cricket.
