By Les Hutchings
It was a great weekend for Kilsyth Cricket Club with the Third and Fourth XI’s both winning premierships after hard-fought Grand Finals against Yarra Junction and Chirnside Park respectively. Coupled with Women’s First XI premiership two weeks ago, it has been a successful season for the Club.
Kilsyth’s Third XI Grand Final continued for a third day on Saturday with Yarra Junction’s Second XI resuming on 6/61 off 45.2 overs, chasing Kilsyth’s score of 122. It was a perfect day for cricket at Seville’s North Oval with the temperature reaching a top of 23C. With a further 55.4 overs available to score the required 62 runs, Yarra Junction inched the score along to 6/71 off 56 overs. However, on the fourth ball of the 57th over, Kilsyth achieved the breakthrough when Mark Unternahrer had Tyler Reed caught by Dylan Smith at first slip for a patient 7 off 61 balls. The Junction were now 7 /61 with Blayden Steedman on 6 not out and also batting with great patience. After 60 overs, Yarra Junction reached 7/80 and with 41 overs remaining and three wickets in hand, they were well in the game. But it was then that left arm medium pacer Mark Unternahrer claimed a second wicket (clean bowled) in the 61st over, and soon a third (lbw) in the 63rd over, to see Yarra Junction now 9/80. Dylan Smith picked up the last wicket when Blayden Steedman was clean bowled for 12 off 94 balls to give Smith his fifth wicket for the match, the first time he had ever achieved five wickets in an innings. Thus, Kilsyth won the premiership by 35 runs after a hard-fought match from both sides. For Kilsyth, opening bowler Dylan Smith was outstanding, sending down 29.4 overs, 14 maidens and capturing 5/28. Veteran Mark Unternahrer completed a great all-round game, taking 3/32 off 16 overs (8 maidens), after top scoring for the match with 45. All Kilsyth’s bowlers were very accurate and kept the pressure on the batsmen. Mark Wells took 1/5 off 10 overs (6 maidens), Max Wills 1/4 off 5 overs (2 maidens), Justin Smith 0/2 off 3 overs (2 maidens), and Matthew Burgess 0/2 off 2 overs (1 maiden). Wicket keeper Anthony Cook, and Dylan Smith, took two catches each and the fielding for Kilsyth was very good. It was a great end to the season for the Third Xi who had to win 8 out of the last 9 matches to make the Grand Final and thus finished with 9 wins out of the last 10 games.
After no play the previous weekend, Kilsyth’s Fourth XI played Chirnside Park’s Fourth XI at Kimberley Reserve, Number 1 Oval in the C Grade (DJ Strachan Shield) Grand Final. In the split innings format, each team bats for two splits of 36 overs each. Kilsyth won the toss and elected to bat. The Redbacks lost an early wicket in the third over (bowled Ryan Gromadovski) to be 1/5. They then batted quite slowly to be 1/11 off the first 11 overs. The tempo then picked up and after 16 overs Kilsyth had reached 1/30. However, in the 17th over, the second wicket fell when Andrew Smith was caught by Jackson Lehmann off the bowling of Gus Schilling for 24 off 56 balls (3 fours), and Kilsyth were now 2/31. With the score on 48 in the 23rd over, Shaun Goodwin was the third wicket to fall, caught by Deepan Santhosh Kumar, bowled Donovan Shortt for 15 off 59 balls (1 four). Jake Powell, 12 not out off 56 balls, and Greg Gommers 13 not out off 42 balls (1 four), saw the Redbacks to 3/69 at the end of the first split off 36 overs. The wicket takers for Chirnside Park were Ryan Gromadovski 1/19 off 10 overs (3 maidens), Donovan Shortt 1/4 off 4 overs (2 maidens), and Gus Schilling 1/15 off 5 overs (2 maidens). They were well supported by Barry Collins, 0/6 off 6 overs (2 maidens), Deepan Santhosh Kumar 0/9 off 6 overs (2 maidens), Seth McDonnell 0/4 off 2 overs, and Trent Summers 0/12 off 3 overs.
After the tea break, Chirnside Park also lost an early wicket (lbw to Joel Gibb) to be 1/1 in the third over. However, a 51-run second wicket partnership between Darren Cameron and Cameron Anderson steadied the situation before Anderson was stumped by ’keeper Jake Powell off spin bowler Matthew Harper for 19 from 53 balls. Chirnside Park were now 2/52 after 17 overs with Cameron on 19 not out. The score then progressed to 2/86 after 29 overs with Chirnside well on top and Kilsyth in need of a wicket. That wicket came in the 30th over when leg spinner Andrew Smith had the left-handed Darren Cameron caught by Captain Anthony Sequeira for a well-made 31 off 86 balls (4 fours). In his second spell, pace bowler Joel Gibb then picked up his second wicket (clean bowled), in the 36th and last over of the split to see Chirnside Park 4/96 at stumps, with a lead of 27 runs. Barry Collins was on 28 not out off 46 balls (4 fours). For Kilsyth, Joel Gibb had 2/19 off 8 overs (2 maidens), Matthew Harper 1/14 off 9 overs (3 maidens), and Andrew Smith 1/14 off 5 overs (2 maidens). The other bowlers used to that point in the match were Travis Tyszkiewicz, 0/17 off 7 overs (2 maidens), Anthony Sequeira 0/17 off 4 overs (1 maiden), and Hayden Monds 0/7 off 3 overs (1 maiden).
Chirnside Park resumed their innings on Sunday for their second split of 36 overs. Kilsyth opened the bowling with leg spinner Andrew Smith and pace bowler Joel Gibb, and they kept the pressure on with some very tight bowling. In the 41st over with the score on 100, Chirnside lost their fifth wicket, lbw to Andrew Smith. Then Joel Gibb claimed the sixth wicket, also lbw, with the score now 6/104 after 46 overs. So, Chirnside had lost 2/8 off 10 overs at the start of Day 2, and at drinks after the first18 overs, the score had reached 6/114 off a total of 54 overs. Kilsyth had certainly gained the ascendancy but a 64-run partnership for the seventh wicket between Barry Collins and Jackson Lehmann gave the Panthers a chance. It was then that medium pacer Greg Gommers, claimed three wickets in five balls in his second over. His first victim was Barry Collins, who had batted solidly for 48 off 140 balls (4 fours), before being caught and bowled by Gommers. Thus, Chirnside suddenly slumped to 9/168 off 68 overs and were eventually all out for 177 when Joel Gibb took the last wicket, clean bowled, after 70.3 overs. At the close of the innings, Jackson Lehmann remained 50 not out off 81 balls (5 fours), to top score for the Panthers. For Kilsyth, Joel Gibb bowled superbly, capturing 4/32 off 17.3 overs (5 maidens), as did Greg Gommers with 3/11 off 3 overs, Andrew Smith 2/25 off 15 overs (6 maidens,) and Matthew Harper 1/33 off 13 overs (4 maidens). Although not taking a wicket, the following bowlers gave good support with Travis Tyszkiewicz yielding 0/33 off 13 overs (4 maidens), Captain Anthony Sequeira 0/23 off 6 overs (1 maiden), and Hayden Monds 0/7 off 3 overs (1 maiden). In the field Hayden Monds took a superb catch on the boundary at deep backward square leg off the bowling of Greg Gommers, whilst wicket keeper Jake Powell snared a nice catch and secured a brilliant stumping.
So, the equation was Kilsyth needed to score 109 runs off 37 overs with 7 wickets in hand to win the premiership. The Redbacks resumed on 3/69 with Jake Powell on 12 not out and Greg Gommers on 13 not out. They started brightly but with the score on 80 on the second ball of the split’s fourth over, Jake Powell accidentally collided with the wicket keeper after running two and had to retire hurt for 21 off 67 balls (1 four). This brought Matthew Harper to the crease and he and Greg Gommers batted really well, running brilliantly between wickets to rotate the strike between their left and right-hand combination. Their partnership took Kilsyth’s score to 133 when Gommers was stumped for 32 off 91 balls (1 four) on the last ball of the 51st over, bowled by Seth McDonnell. Two more wickets fell quickly to Gus Schilling (both caught), and Kilsyth were now 6/140 off 54 overs with a further 38 runs required. At that stage Matthew Harper was on 29 not out. However, Harper with 50 not out off 75 balls (4 fours), and Michael Sturt, 19 not out off 19 balls (1 four), got the job done for Kilsyth with Sturt hitting the winning boundary in the 64th over. Kilsyth finished on 6/180 to win by four wickets with 9.4 overs remaining. The wicket takers for Chirnside Park were Gus Schilling, 3/32 off 9 overs (2 maidens), Donovan Shortt 1/24 off 8 overs (2 maidens), Seth McDonnell 1/27 off 9.2 overs (1 maiden), and Ryan Gromadovski 1/45 off 19 overs (5 maidens). Matthew Harper was awarded Man of the Match for his match winning innings of 50 not out in the run chase as well as taking 1/33 off 13 overs (4 maidens). Congratulations to Kilsyth’s Fourth XI who have had a great season.
