Bendigo District Cricket Association rivals Bendigo and Bendigo United played a practice match at the QEO on Sunday ahead of the season start on October 31.

The club's and umpires took the opportunity to use the game as a learning tool for the new COVID-19 related restrictions.

The fielding teams didn't use saliva on the ball, maintained 1.5m social distancing rules and refrained from high fives when celebrating wickets.

All players, umpires and officials sanitised their hands every 10 overs and the ball was cleaned with an alcohol-based antibacterial wipe after the completion of every 10 overs.

"Both teams got through it okay,'' Bendigo United skipper Miggy Podosky said.

"It's all about communication. At one point a spectator touched the ball, so we had to have our designated ball cleaner run down and clean the ball.

"I thought our boys did a great job of not licking our fingers and putting them on the ball or touching our forehead and putting our fingers on the ball.

"The umpires Steve Rainey and Ash Rowe did a great job of looking out for that sort of stuff and their feedback was really good.

"We were lucky today that it was a bit of a cooler today, so we weren't sweating much. It will be different on a hot day in December.

"All the pressure is on the fielding team to make sure they do everything right, but we did have to remind some players to put their masks on when they weren't batting, bowling or fielding.

"Overall, I thought both clubs handled it pretty well."

The match itself was scheduled for Saturday, but rain forced it to be postponed until Sunday.

Bendigo United scored a confidence-boosting win.

The Redbacks' bowling attack made use of some life in the wicket and bowled the Goers out for 163 in the 41st over.

New Bendigo skipper Nathan Fiztpatrick top-scored with 40. Tom Batters, Billy Quirk and Ashley Younghusband took two wickets each for the Redbacks.

In reply, Bendigo United posted 190, thanks largely to an aggressive knock from Harry Donegan.

The right-hander smashed 80 off just 62 balls at the top of the innings.

Tom Starr (30 off 25 balls) also looked in good touch.

Kyle Humphrys took three wickets with his off-spinners for Bendigo.

Bendigo United is at home to White Hills in round one, while Bendigo travels to Strathfieldsaye.

Read more: Catch up on the latest cricket news

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