Murray Valley got its quest for a fourth consecutive Bendigo Country Week Neil Pollock Memorial Shield off to a flying start, with a comfortable win against Shepparton in yesterday’s division one match.
After winning the toss at Colbinabbin and electing to bat, the Valley’s batsmen scored 4-203 off 50 overs.
Opening batsman Luke Carter led the way for the Valley with 76 and featured in a 100-run partnership with number four batsman Ash Quinn, who made 37.
Carter was dismissed with the score at 3-127 before Luke Quinn chimed in with 56 not out to lift the Valley to a competitive total.
Shepparton’s bowlers spread the wickets four ways, with Paul Newman taking 1-88 off 21 overs, whichi included a maiden, before he opened the batting and top scored with 87.
At 3-141, Shepparton was in with a chance of claiming a confidence-boosting win, but lost second top-scorer Jedd Wright, 27, Newman and Dan Coombes without adding to the score.
Alex Osmond and Joel Cahir were the pick of the Murray Valley bowlers.
Osmond claimed excellent figures of 11 overs, two maidens, 4-36, which included having former South Melbourne premier cricketer Newman stumped.
Cahir picked up three wickets for 52 runs off his 11 overs.
In the match on a lightning-fast outfield at the Queen Elizabeth Oval, Ferntree Gully easily chased Portland’s below-par total of 167 all out.
Luke Evans, 30, Gareth Haeberle, 35, and Matthew Payne, 29, all got starts for Portland, but could not convert them into big scores.
Usman Arif, Scott McKenzie and Aaron Walter each picked up two wickets for Ferntree Gully, who then compiled 6-238 in reply.
Opening batsman Wayne McInerney top-scored with 71 and contributed to an opening stand of 77 with Jayden Bradbury who scored 24 runs. Robbie McCombe, 29 not out, and Aaron Walter, 29, were the next best contributors with the bat.
Meanwhile, it was a thrilling match at Moon Oval in Rochester, where Campaspe tied with Castlemaine on 167 runs each.
After winning the toss and batting, Castlemaine started brightly, with a 55-run opening partnership between Matt Kile and Nathan Stubbings, who scored 43 and 31 runs respectively.
But after Adrian Pappin, four overs, one maiden, 1-15, broke the partnership with the wicket of Kile, Justin Van Niekerk ran riot through the Castlemaine batting line-up.
Van Niekerk’s 6-55 off 15 overs devastated Castlemaine’s middle-order and handed Campaspe a realistic target to chase.
In reply, Campaspe’s Adrian Pappin scored quickly with 31 runs in the 38-run opening partnership, but the team slumped from 1-51 to 5-68 in the face of some good team bowling.
Kirk Teasdale, 31, and Van Niekerk set about recovering the innings until, with the scores tied at nine-down, Van Niekerk hit a return catch to Kile and was dismissed for 22.
Kile returned the best figures of 3-27 off eight overs, while Clint Aldridge and Alex Ross each claimed two wickets.
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