Ballan Cricket Club

Results – W/e Saturday 21 January (R10)

Ballan 1st XI (BCA 2nd Grade)
Ballan 9/226 lost Wendouree 7/231

Bowling – Ben Loughnane: 9-2-2-17, Heath Doherty: 7-1-2-32
Batting – Jack McGregor 87, Mick Nolan 51, Matt Thomas 25

Wendouree won the toss and chose to bat with young bowler Eli Muir opening.

Through the middle overs Wendouree’s quick start was pulled back with great bowling from the spin twins Heath Doherty and Ben Loughnane.

Unfortunately, some missed chances and wide bowling meant that Wendouree were always making quick runs and in the end finished with a very competitive score of 231.

With the bat, Jack McGregor was the absolute standout with 87. He was assisted in the middle by Mick Nolan, 51 and Matt Thomas, 25. They brought Ballan back into the game and in the end the boys gave themselves every chance to win.

Wendouree were too good on the day and in the end held on with good bowling and fielding to win by six runs.

Ballan 2nd XI (BCA 4th Grade)
Ballan 10/79 lost Ballarat Fire Brigade 10/166

Bowling – Jake Wernicke 6-0-5-34, Stuart Grigg 6-0-4-24, Chris Thom 8-0-1-36
Batting – Max Burton 32

Ballan took on Ballarat Fire Brigade who won the toss and elected to bat first.

Chris Thom pulled on the whites, and left the camera on the bench, once more and delivered eight outstanding overs in a row, opening up with Jake Hotchin who both had the Fire Brigade batters on the front foot for most of their spell. Some tight bowling resulted in some big shots being played (including one on to the new pavilion roof) to relieve the pressure being applied by the Ballan openers. Chris was unlucky not to have picked up a couple of wickets but he did get a nice caught behind, courtesy of Josh Singh behind the stumps in the 5th over.

John Costello came on first change with his off-spin, as did young-gun Jake Wernicke a couple of overs later who proceeded to pick up a wicket, clean bowled with his first ball of the match in the 17th over. He didn’t stop there, collecting a second wicket later in the over via a nice catch in the deep by Michael Vallance. A third wicket arrived via the ball collecting the wickets again and Jake was on fire against The Brigade.

Jake picked up his fourth wicket via a nice Jake Hotchin catch, and then the number five wicket came courtesy of a catch by Max at deep long on. A wonderful spell of bowling by Jake, and it looked like the Ballarat Fire Brigade were not going to make it through their innings being 6/134 in the 25th over. Jake claiming 5/34.

Time for Stu Grigg and Dave Leach to enter the attack. Stu in his second game back had the ball moving both ways through the air and delivered some wonderful bowling to the batters. Dave Leach as always, was economical and caused trouble for those holding the willow. A great bowling partnership saw the last 11 overs go for only 32 runs with Stu cleaning up the tail, picking up 4/24 – a nice catch by Jake Wernicke out on the boundary, Dave Leach taking the traditional slips catch and the final two batters being cleaned bowled to end the innings.

Fire Brigade finished all out on 166.

In reply, Ballan lost John Costello first ball as he played onto his stumps. Number 3, James Somers did not hang around too long and was dismissed cleaned-bowled for 4 with Jake Wernicke departing quickly as well for 2 after directing a ball to gully. In the 10th over Ballan was 3/22.

Max and Stu dug in for a small partnership with some sharp running between the wickets and a few boundaries being hit. The score had reached 38 before Stu caught the outside edge of his bat through to the keeper for eight.

Jake Hotchin copped a beauty of a delivery first ball for LBW and Michael Vallance found himself at the wicket on a hat-trick.

Survived he did, but not for much longer and he also found himself out LBW a couple of overs later for 0.

Opening batter Max, was fighting hard against some difficult bowling with the ball moving both ways and at great pace from some of the bowlers. He lost his wicket soon after drinks for 32 by not really getting a hold of the ball whilst attempting to cut through the gully on one too many occasions. In the 21st over, Ballan were 7/54.

Dave Leach and Glenn Easterbrook put on a small partnership before Glenn was out, caught for two. Josh Singh joined the fray, hitting a nice 4 to square leg before he found himself trapped in front LBW for 6 trying to turn a ball to mid-wicket.

The last batter for Ballan, Liam, came to the crease, but unfortunately did not hang around for very long, getting clean-bowled for 0.
Dave Leach finished on 7 not out, including one boundary via a cut shot through cover.

Ballan finished all out for 79.

This week – Ballan will take on Wendouree in a two-day match starting at home.