With the side riding high on the back of two straight wins, the NDCC 4th Grade side made the Gibson Park season debut full on confidence. With skipper delayed due to unforseen circumstances, the toss was made and won by the Butchers who quickly chose to field.
Craig Dixon (3/20) commenced the attack with 3 straight maidens, and Dan Bond (3/18) only gave away one wide in his first two overs to put the pressure on the Burgh side. By the end of the 5th over, Dicko had struck 3 times and had the Burgh reeling at 3/2. When Bond struck next, the Burgh were 4/23 and the Butcher enthusiasm in the field was high. The Burgh batsmen knuckled down and saw out some overs and set about building a partnership.
With 2 overs to go to drinks, the ball was thrown to Alex Tobin (1/39) and Greg Martin (2/25). The batsmen didn't look at home with the pace off the ball and the sides went to drinks at the end of the 22nd over with the score at 4/87. Seeing the batsmen less comfortable having to make the pace, the slower bowlers continued the tight bowling with almost immediate results. Alex Tobin had the Burgh top scorer stumped in his 2nd over after drinks. Greg Martin struck twice in the next over with the score now 6/103.
A partnership was starting to blossom for the 7th wickets until a suicidal runout, with the batsmen chosing incorrectly to take on the arm of young Jorey Wilson. With a throw to the keepers end no more than 2 inches from the stumps, not even I could ruin this run out!!! The new ball bowlers can back to wrap up the tail and the Burgh innings came to a close with the score on 151 off 41.5 overs.
Aidan Simmons (11) and Jorey Wilson (8) opened the Butcher chase. The pair look comfortable, with Jorey opening with 2 very nice boundaries. The first wicket fell with the score on 22, and what followed in the next few overs could only be described as a true Butcher collapse. Adam Van Wijk (0), Jorey Wilson (8) and Brett Buckley (2) all falling in quick succession, to see the score plummet to 4/30. Greg Martin (74*) walked out in the middle of the mini collapse and looked at ease against the attack. Dan Bond (23) steadied the ship with a 33 run partnership with Marto, until a mistimed shot saw him caught at mid off. Alex Tobin (11) was hitting the ball crisply and can only described as terribly unlucky to be run out. In challenging the field, Alex took a quick single to mid-on and challenged the fielder to hit the one stump on sight. Unfortunately for Alex he was up to the task! But what made the run out so unlucky was a large sandy patch about 30cm short of the crease, and as Alex slide his bat and seemed to be going to make his ground, the bat hit the sandy patch and buried to leave Alex stranded. Lachlan Dunn (0) was clean bowled first ball. Drinks were taken at the fall off Lachlan's wicket with the Butchers at a shaky 7-97 at the end of the 21st over. Chris Ledwidge (21*) joined Greg Martin after drinks and the pair saw the side to victory in 30.1 overs. This partnership saw 64 runs come off 9.1 overs. Greg Martin opened the shoulders and cleared the boundary markers 3 times in quick succession.
By far the least convincing performance from the 4th grade side this year, but we managed to remain undefeated at the top of the table. The game was played in great spirits by both sides and a deserved man of the match goes to Greg Martin, but mention must be made of efforts with the bat and especially in the field of Jorey Wilson on his senior Butchers debut.
No doubt Jorey has a wonderful Butcher future ahead of him.
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