Batting: Ash Dempsey 24*, Benji Fearn 20*, Eddie Tunningley 20*

Bowling: Hamish Carling 3/4, Eddie Tunningley 1/4, Max Frizza 1/8

Notable Players: Joe Walshe – 2 clever runouts. Henry Denny – Fantastic catch

Birthdays: Hamish Carling 😊

 

So the season is underway and the boys from Sapphire have notched up a win with an emphatic victory over TVJCC Magpies. The birthday boy, Hamish, had the honour of donning the captain’s bowtie for the inaugural match and, although he lost the toss, led the team with an inspiring performance (more on that later).

After being sent in to bat, Ash and Ari opened and quickly found their groove. In a blaze of five 4s, Ash hit his way to a team high of 24 before being dismissed. Ari batted out his 20 balls, which seemed to be the order of the day with Joe, Benji, and Eddie all doing the same. The four boys dismissed can hold their heads high, knowing they played good cricket but were just beaten by good balls. At the end of the 20 overs, the boys had accumulated an impressive 145 runs.

Riding high on the great batting effort, the team took to the field in good spirits as captain Hamish took the new ball. With the first ball of the season, Hamish had the batter playing uppishly and late, sending it towards gully where Henry was waiting to snare a fantastic catch. What a start! Things kept going from there as three balls later Hamish enticed a nick through to keeper Rory who snaffled it in his waiting gloves. The man in the bowtie was not finished, as in his very next over he snuck one through the gate to add another wicket to his collection. From there the Magpies never recovered. Eddie rattled the stumps in the fourth over, as did Max in the seventh. The rest of the boys kept their bowling tight, building pressure which eventually got too much for the team from Tuggeranong. A runout to Tomoki had Sapphire only two wickets off victory. Joe then pulled off some clever fielding and picked up two runouts in two balls to finish off the game.

A brilliant first outing by the boys. After only one training session and one game they have already gelled, all providing amazing support for each other. It feels like it’s going to be a great season!