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38 Wickets Fall PDF Print E-mail
Contributed by Peter North   
Thursday, 10 January 2008

The WACA First-Grade pennant competition resumed at the weekend with a two-day clash between Bayswater-Morley and Scarborough at Hillcrest Reserve.  The match was not expected to produce a tight contest because of the seeming imbalance of the two teams with Scarborough sitting in third position on the table and Bayswater third from the bottom, but a number of circumstances combined to kindle a healthy amount of interest.  Importantly it featured the long awaited return from injury of Western Warriors captain Marcus North, and featured the participation of former Test star Justin Langer and another senior Warrior in Clint Heron, and the debut of yet another promising teenage all-rounder for the Bears

North won the toss on Saturday and promptly invited Langer’s troops to bat on a pitch which promised some early life for seam bowling. His decision was justified with a highly disciplined display of team involvement, destructive bowling, and sharp and efficient fielding, which produced results beyond expectation when the visitors were bundled out for a mediocre total of 147 midway through the second session.  Heron [9] and Langer [6] both went cheaply and only Australian Under 19 star Marcus Stoinis [46], Michael Johnson [28] and Andrew Tye [27], made any useful contribution.  Destroyers for the Bears were seamers Michael Thistle [4-42], and David Edwards with 4-39. Fifteen year-old Sam Baird, the son of current head coach David, tweaked his first wicket at this level from his 12 overs at a cost of 37 runs.

The Hillcrest wicket was expected to flatten out and be more batting friendly, but it retained its unpredictability and at the close of the first day Bayswater had lost 8 wickets and were 26 runs short of first-innings points.  The only bright spot was a sparkling cameo by North who made 55 from 75 balls laced with a series of trade-mark cover drives included in his nine boundaries.  Best of the bowlers for the visitors was Warrior left-armer Justin Coetzee with 3-28 and spinner Ty Hopes who snared 4-26, including the prized wicket of North.  Sunday morning saw the Bears fall just ten runs short of their target with young Baird undefeated on 20.

The action continued immediately when Scarborough batted a second time, when after only 34.2 overs found themselves routed for 149 after only 34.2 overs with JustinLanger failing again and Heron and Stoinis both going cheaply.  Thistle [5-50 and Edwards with 4-74 once more were the wreckers.  The stage was then set for a nail-biting finish with Bayswater needing 159 from the last 37 overs of the match to achieve a famous outright victory.  Although the Bears had a flying start to the pursuit with Chris Hall belting 39 off 20 balls and Cameron Robb [27] hitting the ball crisply, the innings began to stumble, and when North fell to Hopes again for only one, the task seemed more than difficult.  And so it proved to be, but Bayswater held on bravely to salvage an honourable draw to be 8-152 at the close. Brendan Mills played a fine knock to be undefeated on 52, ably supported once again by Baird who contributed a solid 22.  Thirty eight wickets had fallen in an extraordinary two days of cricket, but Bayswater can now face high-flying Fremantle next week with a degree of confidence

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 January 2008 )
 
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