B Grade:

After a dominant win last weekend, Pyalong’s B Grade side was looking for more of the same when they travelled to Eastern Hill on Saturday.
Batting first, we lost Joe Ryan in the second over for a duck. CJ and Pete then dug in, getting to drinks without losing another wicket. Not long after the break, CJ skied one, and ended his solid stay at the crease for 35. Jamo joined Pete, however their partnership couldn’t get going, as an ugly run out from the pair saw Pete depart for 38. Damo (6), Meadey (1) and then Jamo (25) fell in rather quick succession. Wilko and Roo then strung together a partnership in the late overs, Roo (7), Wilko (34no) and Jess (9no) pushed the score to 7/178 at the compulsory close.

With the ball, tight spells from openers Damo and Jesse saw pressure on the Eastern Hill batsmen early. Jesse snagged the first one, with Damo taking a nice catch at short cover. Harvey then came on as first change, his first over of his spell saw a wicket, caught at mid off by Joe. His second over had a caught behind by Jamo, and the very next ball he snagged a caught and bowled. By the time he bowled the opposition captain, all of a sudden Eastern Hill were 5/29 and our boys were right on top.

Harvey completed his spell with 5/21 from 9 overs. Jayson Meade came on and ripped through the tail as Eastern Hill was bowled out for 75.

Pyalong 7/178
P Campbell 38
C Wittig 35
M Wilkins 34no
J Pryor 25

Eastern Hill 75
J Harvey 5/21
J Meade 4/14

C Grade:
Pyalong vs Kilmore Blue
Grassy won the toss and made Kilmore Blue bowl. Coming off some good form with both the bat and ball Matty Lane (Latt Mane) went in with Seany D to start our batting innings off. Unfortunately we didn’t get the start we were after and lost Latt(4) and Den (Menace) early, Pyalong 2/18 in the first four overs. Simmo strode to the crease with a look of determination and said “lets get to drinks Seany” the boys worked hard and made a partnership of 33, but Seany(30) departed with a inside edge onto the stumps, leaving drinks well short.
Simmo lost Nick Bender and Mitch Wittig in the next couple of overs (5/57), in comes the Mermaid. Simmo and Mermaid steadied the ship, picking their shots to put away, getting us to drinks at 5/71. After drinks the boys come out firing, putting on another 59 runs in the next 10 overs. The 30th over saw the Mermaid(25) get bowled by a great ball that angled into him, hitting the top of the off stump. Simmo’s patient and hard, fought 52 runs got Pyalong into a better position on the scoreboard. Simmo departed after being caught in the gully, leaving Lockie Bender at the crease with JD joining him at 7/137 after 34.
Lockie (6) and JD put up a great fight towards the end of our innings keeping the Kilmore boys working in the field. Lockie unluckily got run out pushing hard for two runs. Sheepy(1) came in with an over and half to go getting us to 8/153 off our 40.

After Tea we head into the field with a good score to defend. Mikey (0/24 off 5) and Sheepy (0/21 off 4) kick off the first four over really tight keeping Kilmore to only 10 runs. Kilmore’s two opening batsmen where looking good and not giving us to many chances, keeping their run rate at around 5 an over. During Grassy (0/17 off 3) and Latt Mane’s spell, Latt got the break through we were looking for with Nick Bender taking a well, struck cover drive straight to his chest and held onto a difficult catch, Kilmore 1/75 off 15.
JD (1/13 off 3) was the next bowler to take the opposite end to Latt. JD broke through taking the first drop batsman’s wicket with a skied ball to the Menace at mid on being called in by the whole team too catch (in true Den style he plucked it straight out of the air without even a blink of an eye) Kilmore 2/85 off 17. Kilmore went to drinks 2/97 and in a pretty demanding position.
Grassy, not about to roll over without a fight, started to mix the bowlers up to try and get another wicket, throwing the ball to Seany D (0/13 off 3) first without any luck. Latt Mane Pyalong’s best bowler, bowled out his 8th over for 1/37 and was unlucky to get another couple of wickets in his spell. Grassy, not done yet, threw Simmo into the mix with his leggies and Mitchy Wittig (0/12 off 2) with his medium pace to see if we could upset Kilmore’s luck. Mitchy bowled well for his two overs and Simmo got a good one to turn with the batsman miss timing and skying is hit to Mikey at mid off, who took a good catch straight in front of his eyes (Kilmore Blue 3/155 off 30).

This was a more improved game than last week. We start off a bit slow with the bat but keep our heads and batted out our 40 overs and got a respectable score to defend. Our fielding this week wasn’t as good as is has been in the past but we can’t take anything away from Kilmore who played a very good game. If we can string the last two games together we will be a hard team to beat in the future.

“Boys take the positives out of these two games and things will turn around”

Go Pirates!!

- Seany D

Pyalong 8/153
A Simpson 52
S Delaney 30
B Merton 25

Kilmore Blue 3/155
J Delaney 1/13
A Simpson 1/14
M Lane 1/37

U16s:
Our Under 16s hosted Tallarook on Sunday. The kids found it tough in Te field, as Tallarook’s batters powered their way to 2/205. Jacko Ruddick and Brodie Hemphill were the wicket takers. In reply, our kids batted really well, finishing their 35 overs at 5/152. Finn Magee top scored with a well made 52 retired. Declan Clarke chipped in with 28, as did Jacko Ruddick (18) and Connor Stirling (16).

Tallarook 2/205
Jacko Ruddick 1/11
B Hemphill 1/32

Pyalong 5/152
F Magee 52 ret
D Clarke 28
Jacko Ruddick 18
C Stirling 16

This week:
B Grade vs Broadford @ Broadford
C Grade vs Broadford @ Broadford
U16s vs Kilmore @ home
T20 Semi Final vs Kilmore @ Avenel Sunday 12:30pm