Tracy On The Board

Tracy Village defeated PINT

Tracy Village were staring down the barrel of a 0-3 start to the season when PINT needed 81 runs with 10 wickets in hand on a windy Sunday afternoon at the Village green.

But then thunder struck as Tracy allrounder Darcy Gregory-Francis powered through the Greens batting line-up to leave them all out for 167 after being 0-120. It was a comfortable 43-run win for Tracy in the end.

Gregory-Francis took a stunning 4-14 off 10 overs including four maidens as Tracy rose to their first win this season under new coach Rick Bean and new president Daniel McKeown.

The medium pacer was the catalyst behind the Greens batting collapse, grabbing the first wicket of former Tracy allrounder Coby Edmondstone (45) before key wickets of Farzan Chowna (4), Connor Poulton (3) and Nicholas Bembrick (0).

In an incredible turn of events, the Greens lost 10-47. The entire collapse came in three parts: 3-9, 4-0 and 3-7. The 4-0 happening in six deliveries across the 31st and 32nd overs.

It was some brilliant bowling from the Villagers who were down in the dumps not long before the thrilling turnaround. But some positivity at the fall of the first wicket at 1-120 lifted the side.

“We had one thing on our minds, let’s just have fun. We’re playing with our mates, let’s try and get a wicket, have a crack and see what we can get out of this game," Tracy leg spinner Arjun Sehrawat, who took a pivotal 3-36, said post-game.  

“The wicket was still tough so we thought if we could get a wicket or two, it was hard for batters to start on that wicket with the older ball.

“Obviously Darcy Gregory-Francis was bowling really well from the other end and got a couple of wickets and after that we just went bang, bang, bang.”

Tahir Abbas, Tom Campbell and Harry Carroll contributed with a wicket each for Village who now take a 1-2 record heading into round 5.

Before the thrilling bowling effort to win the game, Gregory-Francis was also in the action with the bat scoring a team-high 41. Tracy also had Ansh Tiwary (36), Tom Campbell (34) and Sehrawat (27) contribute to produce a defendable total of 9-210.

Greens, who fall to a 1-3 record following the result, had spinner Bradley Ilott take 4-36 with the ball and Edmondstone gathered 3-39.

Village had 11 debutants in the opening round but after a few weeks of getting to know each other, there is a strong level of optimism about the rest of the season.

Nightcliff defeated Southern Districts

Nightcliff has put themselves up as the team to beat in 2024 after storming out to a 4-0 start to the season following its strong 16-run win over Southern Districts on Sunday afternoon.

It was the Tigers opening pair of Douwtjie Hoogenboezem (127) and Connor Carroll (86) who were at it again, producing their biggest opening stand of the season (170) to set their side up for victory. 

It comes after the destructive pair had partnerships of 157 and 96 respectively in the first two rounds. In round 3 (on Saturday) it was just 40 but they responded with a bang the following day.

After the first wicket fell courtesy of a Dylan Mullen delivery to Carroll, the Crocs continued to take wickets.

The Tigers lost 7-86 in the end to complete their innings with 7-272 as no other batter scored more than 15 runs.

Leg spinner Mullen was strong with 4-56, continuing his fine form from last season where he finished as the leading wicket-taker with 29. McEvoy also continued his strong form from the Saturday game, taking 3-46 including the big wicket of Hoogenboezem.

In the run chase, the game looked over early as the Crocs slumped to 5-88 with quick Jai Allman taking two early wickets.

Crocs No.4 Jackson Isakka helped spark a bit of a comeback but Hoogenboezem put a stop to that when he had Isakka caught and bowled to make the score 7-111.

Amazingly the next wicket didn’t come up until 8-256 as Hammond (89) and McEvoy (48*) produced top-notch efforts to almost spark a shock win. The Crocs however ran out of time and it was game over after 50 overs.

“Few very tired bodies on Sunday afternoon,” Tigers captain Michael Kudra said post-game.

“Everyone is playing good cricket and they’re all super hungry to keep winning.”

Palmerston defeated Darwin

After getting their first win of the season on Saturday, Palmerston made two in a row 24 hours later after defeating Darwin by five-wickets in a close encounter at Kahlin Oval.

A stunning century of 122 from Jacob Dickman in the end wasn’t enough for the Eagles to get over the line as the Power had even contributions across the board to chase down 260 with 10 balls to spare.

Alex Bleakly was excellent with an unbeaten 76 at No.4 for his team’s top score as wicketkeeper Caleb Montague was next best with a solid 68 opening the batting.

Power skipper Hamish Martin scored an important 44 at No.6 after taking two wickets earlier in the game.

Dickman was unstoppable in the first innings as he belted seven maximums in his century of 122 off 139 balls.

Eagles skipper Daniel Kerber (51) and Mitchell Jamieson (37) showed good support as the final score of 6-260 at the compulsory closure looked above par.

But the Power proved it was gettable as the Eagles bowlers didn’t make it easy with five no-balls occurring in their bowling innings.

The Eagles season after four rounds now reads loss-win-bye-loss while the Power are 2-2 and one spot ahead on the ladder in third position.