JUNIOR PREMIERS

Ballan Cricket Club
By Anthony McIlwaine and Helen Tatchell

Finally, a full season of cricket was played, uninterrupted by COVID for the first time in two years, and the match didn’t disappoint.
As was repeated throughout the season, Ballan won the toss and batted first against Creswick in the Premiership final for Under 13s.
The team’s openers Clover McIlwaine and Beth Davenport, once again rose to the challenge and put on another brilliant unbroken partnership. They set a fantastic foundation for the team to build on against tidy bowling by the opposition.
Coach Anthony McIlwaine said leading into the match, they knew it would be tough to get the win.
“We just asked the team to stick to our usual plan of concentrating on one ball at a time and trying their best every ball. We expect mistakes and that is fine, it’s how you bounce back from the mistakes that really matter,” he said.
McIlwaine said (in jest) they focused on the three Fs – fun, being fearless and effort!
“When the final wickets fell it was very satisfying. I have been privileged to coach many of these players their entire career at club and representative level,” McIlwaine said.
“To win a premiership with them especially following two years of Covid interruptions, was very special.”
With a premiership at stake, Eamon Grigg came to the crease with a positive mindset and played a sensational innings setting his intentions immediately, with a beautiful drive to get off the mark. Sarah Burton, Jai Singh and Charlotte Wallace all contributed valuable runs and capitalised on any mistakes by the opposition with clever running between the wickets.
Ballan had 91 runs to defend on a fast out field playing against quality opposition that have been undefeated for two seasons, the team knew they had to be at their absolute best. Each player headed out for the second innings prepared to give the team everything they had. They didn’t disappoint.
Creswick lost their last two wickets in stylish run outs by Charlotte Wallace and Clover McIlwaine, this sealed the victory and the premiership for the juniors.
Ballan 4/91 defeated Creswick 8/73

To read the full story – Simply click on the following link

https://issuu.com/themooraboolnews/docs/mn_2022-03-22/1

in the 22 March 2022 edition
OR
pick up a paper around your town.