WHITE Hills ended a string of nine consecutive games without a win over Bendigo United by comfortably accounting for the Redbacks in their round one Bendigo District Cricket Association clash at Harry Trott Oval on Saturday.
Set 225 to win, the Demons had few hassles in chasing the target, before going on to compile 7-295 off their 85 overs.
The Demons reached the target on the fifth ball of the 74th over, with the winning runs coming after Redbacks’ coach Leigh McDermott was unable to hold on to a leaping one-handed chance at mid-on off White Hills’ Michael Peters (35).
The key to the Demons’ successful run-chase was the even contributions all through the order.
Of the seven batsmen dismissed, the only score under 20 was that of opener Michael Hanson (13 off 27), who was the first wicket to fall in the ninth over.
Darren Gregory (33 off 57), Adam Hargreaves (35 off 69), Gavin Bowles (23 off 90) and Aaron Monro (32 off 74) all made solid contributions in the top-five.
But the standout batsman for the Demons was No. 6 Tim Kelly, who started his innings in the 47th over.
In his first innings for his new club, Kelly, who last week opened the bowling, top-scored with 58 and was at the crease when the winning runs were hit. Also making a half-century for the Demons was another of the club’s new recruits, Ryan McNish.
Starting his innings after White Hills had won the game, McNish made an entertaining 53 not out.
Bendigo United’s leading wicket-takers were Miggy Podosky (2-46) and spinner Nick Crawford (2-56).
Reigning premier Golden Square’s title defence has started with a loss to arch-rivals Eaglehawk at Wade Street.
After Golden Square last week made 186, Eaglehawk answered with 6-205.
The mainstay of the Eaglehawk innings was captain Matt Fitt.
The opener batted for all but 16 balls of Eaglehawk’s innings. Fitt compiled 90 before he was dismissed on the second ball of the 83rd over when caught at mid-on by Daniel Nalder off David Hickman (1-1).
Fitt’s patient 90 came off 218 balls and included 11 boundaries.
Fitt received strong support from experienced duo Jason Abbott (33 off 100) and Matt White (31 off 77).
After the Hawks had been 1-19 in the 10th over following the dismissal of Andrew Bourne (7) by Nalder (1-32), Fitt and Abbott put on 71 for the second wicket.
The partnership ended in the 46th over when Abbott was stumped by Daniel Major off the bowling of spinner Scott Johnson.
Later in the innings Fitt put on 62 for the fifth wicket with White, with the pair taking the score from 4-103 in the 55th over to 5-165 in the 74th.
Eaglehawk secured the win when Andrew Smith (15 n.o.) hit a boundary off Johnson in the 80th over.
After top-scoring for Golden Square with 76 last week, Johnson also produced Square’s best bowling figures, taking 2-31
In his return to the first XI, James Pietromonaco claimed 2-32, with his scalps being Anthony Dennis (3) and Cameron King for a second-ball duck.
After squandering a promising start with the ball last week, Huntly-North Bendigo did the same with the bat against Sandhurst at Weeroona Oval.
The Dragons last week made 8-223, having at one stage been 7-109.
On Saturday the Power looked on track in the 49th over to chase down the target and end its 58-game winless streak when it was 3-112 with captain Linc McRae and Ryan Grundy at the crease.
However, when Grundy (30 off 56, six fours) was caught at mid-wicket by Alex Trump off Andrew Sheehan it sparked a dramatic collapse.
From 3-112, over the following nine overs the Power lost 5-11 to fall to 8-123.
Included in that 5-11 were Luke Steinborner, Matt Rule and Jesse O’Connell, who all failed to score.
However, the Power did show some fight as the last two wickets combined to put on 68 as Huntly-North Bendigo finished at 191.
No. 4 Linc McRae top-scored with 46 off 149 balls, including eight boundaries, before he was the ninth batsman dismissed with the score on 147.
Dale Young (33 n.o.) and recruit Clinton Lloyd (18) put on 44 for the last wicket.
After his unbeaten 61 last week, left-armer Sheehan backed it up by taking 3-40 off 19 overs, while Matthew Pask bowled well to finish with 1-21 off 13 overs.
After round one, Huntly-North Bendigo sits in seventh position on the ladder.
It’s only the second time since round three of the 2005-06 season the Power hasn’t been on the bottom.
A six-wicket haul by paceman Ben DeAraugo spearheaded Strathdale-Maristians to an easy win over Bendigo at Bell Oval.
Chasing the Suns’ 9-234, Bendigo’s innings lasted just 155 minutes and 38.2 overs as it was bowled out for 131.
DeAraugo claimed the outstanding figures of 6-33 off 13 overs, with his first wicket coming off just the fifth ball of the day when opener Michael Johnson (0) was caught by Braden Hocking at third slip.
Within five overs the Goers were on the ropes at 3-9, with DeAraugo having taken all three wickets - Johnson, Jayden McArthur (3) and Michael Hill (0).
As well as DeAraugo’s three wickets, Ryan Haythorpe claimed 3-35.
The only players to make double figures for Bendigo - which had four players fail to score - were No.3 Darren Peterson (40 off 42, eight fours), Mark Ryan (46 n.o off 78, seven fours, one six) and captain Tim Edwards (14 off 21).
The Suns batted for 24 overs in their second innings, reaching 4-98.
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