Nathalia easily accounted for Tocumwal’s A-grade side in Murray Valley Cricket Association action on Saturday.
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Tocumwal 80 was defeated by Nathalia 0/81.
The Bloods kicked off with the bat first with Michael Roberts (9) playing with intent before his dismissal.
After a few early wickets, a composed Peter Harrison (23) and young Jeremy Packer (1) arrived at the crease.
Dropping his anchor, Harrison set himself in for the long haul and with Packer skying a delivery to point, this brought Reilly Rennick (11) out to join him.
With these two guiding the ship, the score kept ticking over until Rennick fell.
Josh Wraight (16) was his replacement and peeled off some entertaining shots before walking off after chopping on.
Upon return after drinks, Harrison’s 90 ball effort to keep The Bloods in the game came to a close at the hand of Liam Evans.
With the remaining wickets falling in quick succession, the ‘Men in Purple’ were to pass 80 for the points.
From the first ball, Liam Evans was a one-man wrecking crew in his assault on the bowling attack.
With Luke Quinn (17 not out) playing more as a spectator at the other end, Evans only needed 38 deliveries to pass the target with 62 of them coming off his blade.
•••
In C-grade, Tocumwal’s two sides came up against one another.
After winning the toss, Tocumwal C-grade Red took to the field with a well planned attack from skipper Jess Bennett.
Joe Barker (1/9) and Logan White (0/9) started economically, bowling great line and length.
Reuben Haley (2/10) and Dennis Sutton (1/17) followed up well with five over spells.
Kenny Chellew (3/17 and on a hat trick for this week) bowled extremely well.
The effort in the field was noticeably improved with Sutton taking three catches.
Ethan Wilson was in the deep with one, Haley and Rory Wills had two and Barker had one.
Wills’ wicket kept the game of his life moving well behind the stumps.
This left Toc chasing a total of 73.
Barker (4) and Haley (27) played a well calculated innings, batting pretty much to the end with Darren White (6), Logan White (14) and Toby Wane on 15 not out, which is his personal best.
Wills finished with three not out to get Toc the win in the 26th over, with plenty in the shed.
It was a great game played in great spirit with lots of friendly banter between the two Tocumwal C-grade sides.
•••
The under-14s wrapped up their two day game with Barooga.
Toc were situated quite precariously after day one on 6/44 off the first 20 overs.
With Barooga on 7/52, the Bloods knew they had to work hard to get a few more runs on the board, and take advantage of the extra wicket in hand.
Sam White and Ollie East picked up the batting where they left off last week, but Ollie unfortunately fell victim to an early catch.
Sam had good but short partnerships with both Arlo Haley (2) and under-14s debut player Joel.
Jack Watson then took the crease and with overs on their side, the boys had a great partnership putting on 20 much needed runs until Jack (3) was bowled out.
Sam finished with his u14s top score of nine not out.
Toc’s final score was 10/72.
The Bloods then went in to bowl and Barooga only needed 21 runs to reach their target of 73 in 20 overs, with only three wickets in hand.
The pressure was applied really well by the young Bloods.
Chase Jarjoura from Barooga gave them a fright finishing up on 17 runs before being taken out by Archie Chellew, who had fantastic figures of 2/9 off six overs.
This was a blessing and a curse, as this wicket then brought Kohen Hadrell to the crease and Toc thought they were in trouble.
Barooga were 8/64 and Jack Watson came on and continued his fine bowling form from last week.
He took out Lukas Robertson to have Barooga 9/69.
The pressure was intense as Kohen and Cameron Wingfield were a real threat to the Toc bowlers.
With only four runs to make in 13 overs, but no wickets in hand, the stakes were high.
Jack casually lined up and delivered a beautiful ball and took out Cameron in style.
Jack ended up with fantastic figures of 3/11 off 5 overs.
With a final score of 10/70, Toc won by two runs in a thrilling match.
•••
Tocumwal’s Stage 1 under-12s played against Cobram at home.
Eliza Wraight was captain and she won the toss. After much deliberation she elected to bowl.
It was a very even game, and Toc played its most competitive game for the season so far.
There was some great improvements to the bowling innings, although wides are still being given away too easily.
Max White was a standout with his bowling spell of 2/6 off three overs, just missing out on a hat trick.
Ashton Griffs also had great figures of 0/4 off two overs, only giving away two wides.
Toc went in to bat chasing Cobram’s 66 runs.
Lincoln and Emily (surnames not provided) opened the batting and stood up to the Cobram bowling well, making a few quick runs.
Maverick (surname not provided) was a stand out, hitting two boundaries for a top score of 8.
Max and Eliza got four runs each.
It was a very thrilling final few overs with Eliza facing out the last overs by herself.
She stood up to the pressure so well, and with scores even, all she had to do was not go out.
She faced up and got Toc ahead by four runs in the end.
In the finish, Toc were 2/78 vs Cobram 2/74.
It was the side’s first win for the season, and it was a thrilling game to watch.
Max White got the player of the week this week for his fantastic bowling efforts.
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