A shiver went down the spine of Rochester A-grade cricket captain Dylan Cuttriss when a rain-delayed start to the team’s Goulburn Murray fixture with Kyabram Fire Brigade opened with a boundary for star batsman Paul Newman.
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Newman was fresh off a swashbuckling 81 in the opening round of the season in a match where he did exactly the same to the first delivery of Echuca’s English recruit Ben Holt.
Saturday was the opening two-day match of the season and with mid-morning rain the Northern Oval fixture at Kyabram did not start until 2.30pm.
Dylan Cuttriss won the toss and chose to bowl, momentarily questioning his decision after Newman’s opening scoring shot.
The next five deliveries of opening bowler Myles Wade’s over were dot balls and after cooling his heels at fine leg he returned to claim not only Newman’s wicket with the fourth delivery of his second over, but two balls later removed Tristan Watson for a duck.
Wade’s short bowling stint of seven overs, including two maidens, netted him a 2-14 return.
Cuttriss said his team had planned for Wade to bowl to Paul Newman and to introduce youngster Fraser Cleary after his dismissal.
Fire Brigade momentarily restored order, patient opener Miller Griffiths and Brenton Campbell combining for a 66-run stand.
That came to an end in the 25th over when Campbell’s 72 delivery innings ended when he was the first of two run-outs. Campbell had struck four boundaries and a six in his 44 when Joe Hamilton got a finger to a Griffiths straight drive that cannoned onto the stumps and found Campbell short of his ground..
Griffiths, who faced 86 deliveries for his 24-run tally, eventually came to an end in the 34th over when he was also a run-out victim.
His run-out came when Nate Rasmussen made a direct hit from mid-off.
Fire Brigade was 4-96 when Rob Salter and wicketkeeper Jake Gascoyne came together. In the opening week of the competition Gascoyne was unbeaten with 33 at the end of his team’s innings.
He continued where he left off, playing a support role to Salter as the pair added 58 runs in 12 overs before Salter’s five-boundary innings of 42 ended.
He was the first of two Fraser Cleary victims (the other being Fire Brigade captain Daniel Kent), in the space of three overs, as Cleary delivered 15 overs for figures of 2-36.
Gascoyne held up his end to the tune of an unbeaten 43, including three boundaries, as Fire Brigade finished with 6-168 from its 55 overs.
Rochester’s significant improvement in the field came by way of a sundries total which paled against the opening round’s 25 (19 wides).
Assisting that was the understandable leeway given to the bowlers within the two-day match structure, but still only eight sundries helped Rochester keep Fire Brigade to a scoring rate of just over three runs an over.
Rochester will have the services of Sean Williams with bat and ball next week after it used a substitute fieldsman in week one of the game.
Jessie Cuttriss will not play until round eight.
• Echuca scored 8-198 against Leitchville-Gunbower on the back of an unbeaten 48 from Archer Carlile.
The tally came from 71 overs after Brendan Moyle (36) and Matt Hinks (24) continued solid starts to the 2022-23 season.
Hinks smashed an unbeaten 80 from 81 deliveries for the reigning premier in the opening round against Fire Brigade.
Aidan Young’s four-boundary 31-run tally ended a domination of bat over ball when Echuca lost 5-55 to end the afternoon.
Vikai Kelley took 3-44 from his 17 overs to be the pick of the Leitchville-Gunbower bowlers.
• Echuca South scored 7-112 from a reduced day one innings of 56 overs, the slow going caused by accurate Bamawn-Lockington United bowling.
Clayton Watson (22) and Jayden Rosin (30) stood up in the early stages for BLU, but of the remaining batsmen only Shanaka Silva (not out 19) managed a double figure cotribution to the total.
Amila Gunathilaka, Rathika Rajakumara and captain Regis Chakabva all claimed two Echuca South wickets.
• Cooma was bundled out by Nondies Cohuna for just 67, the Nondies combination taking first innings points by the close of play on day one.
Nondies will resume at 6-80 after its opening bowling combination of Peter Moore and Xavier Wishart took seven victims between them.
Only stubborn opener Liam Scopelitti offered serious resistance to the onslaught, facing 91 deliveries and scoring almost two-thirds of his team’s total (40). His was the eighth wicket to fall in the 28th over, of the 33.2-over innings.
Rhys Bradley’s unbeaten 24 for Nondies came from just 33 deliveries after William Wade opened the innings with 22 and Sam O’Shea scored 14.
SCOREBOARD
GOULBURN MURRAY A GRADE
John McMahon Shield
Kyabram Fire Brigade v Rochester
Rochester won toss and bowled. Rain delayed the start until 2.30pm.
KYABRAM FIRE BRIGADE
P Newman c Arnold b Wade......................4 (10)
M Griffiths run out (J Hamilton)...............24 (86)
T Watson lbw b Wade..................................0 (2)
B Campbell run out (N Rasmussen).........44 (72)
R Salter c Wade b Cleary............................42 (64)
J Gascoyne not out.....................................43 (64)
D Kent c Evans b Cleary................................3 (14)
C Hooper not out...........................................0 (19)
Extras (4b, 4lb)...............................................8
SIX wkts for.................................................168
FOW: 6 (Newman), 6 (Watson), 72 (Campbell), 96 (Griffiths), 154 (Salter), 160 (Kent).
Bowling: M Wade 7-2-14-2, J Hamilton 11-1-28-0, K Waters 7-1-40-0, D Cuttriss 15-4-42-0, F Cleary 15-3-35-2. Overs: 55.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor