The best young cricket talent in Victoria was on show at Strathfieldsaye on Monday.
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In the first day of a special four-day under-17 carnival, Victoria Country, Victoria Metro and the Cricket Victoria XI did battle in two T20 matches.
The carnival replaces the annual national under-17 championships which were scheduled for Hobart, but were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With no national under-17 carnival, the Bendigo Summer Series is an important part of Cricket Victoria's pathway program for this season.
The CV XI is largely made up of bottom-age players, including two of the brightest talents in the state - Harry Demattia and Oliver Peake.
Demattia already opens the batting for Melbourne first XI at Premier Cricket level and bowls at a decent clip, while Peake, who is the son of former Victorian player Clinton Peake, is a classy top-order batter and off-spin bowler from Geelong.
The Victoria Country squad includes two BDCA players - Xavier Austin (Bendigo United) and Jack Pysing (Strathdale-Maristians).
Vic Country opened the carnival with a six-wicket loss to Vic Metro and went down to the CV XI by five wickets in the second match.
Austin was dismissed without scoring in both matches, while he opened the bowling with his off-spinners in the second game and had figures of 0-18 off four overs.
Pysing, who sat out the first game, made an impressive debut after not coming on to bowl until the 14th over with the CV XI only 11 runs short of victory.
Pysing only conceded five runs in his opening over and was unlucky not to take a wicket when a skied ball fell just short of long-off.
With the first delivery of his second over, Pysing forced Archie Flynn into a false shot and he completed a caught and bowled to claim his first wicket for Vic Country.
Four balls later he trapped Lucas Cavigan lbw for one to finish with 2-5 off two overs.
Echuca's Kobyn James, who plays with Melbourne in Premier Cricket, is also part of the Victoria Country squad.
James, a keeper/batsman, was dismissed for a duck in the first match before top-scoring with 25 off 37 balls in the second game.
On a Strathfieldsaye pitch that was tough to bat on, Vic Country made 9-100 off its 20 overs against Vic Metro and 8-77 off 20 overs against the CV XI.
The destroyer for the CV XI attack was Wonthaggi pace bowler Jarvis Harvey.
The cousin of Melbourne Renegades' Mackenzie Harvey, Jarvis took 5-14 off his four overs.
The best performer for Vic Country on day one was leg-spinner Liam Walsh, who took 4-13 against Vic Metro.
Fellow Vic Country leg-spinner Liam O'Connor took 4-15 against the CV XI, including the prized wickets of Peake and Demattia.
On Tuesday, Victoria Metro and the CV XI clash in a one-day game at North Bendigo.
Victoria Country tackles Vic Metro at the QEO on Wednesday before the CV XI and Vic Country meet again at the QEO on Thursday. All one-day games start at 10am.
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