By Dejan Kalinic
A NINE-wicket haul by Matthew Scalzo helped Kealba-Green Gully to a match-winning position at the end of the first day of its George Luscombe Shield clash against Burnside Springs in the North West Cricket Association.
The paceman ripped through the Burnside top order in a probing 14-over opening spell to take 7/39 and have the home side all out for 156 in the first innings, before picking up two in as many overs to close the day.
Opener Evan Long (110 not out) struck his maiden Luscombe Shield century, putting on 171 for the second wicket with Todd Newman (58 not out) before the Cougars declared with a lead of 27 and first innings points wrapped up.
To end a horrid day for the home side, Kealba-Green Gully took 3/6 from the last four overs of the day to be in a prime position to wrap up an outright victory this Saturday.
Cougars captain-coach Andrew Lambropoulos was delighted with Scalzo’s bowling display, including a four-over blitz that saw him take 5/13 and miss out with a hat trick ball.
“You need to bowl a lot of full balls and especially on a slow deck. If you get the ball up and swinging and get people driving on a bouncy track, you can get wickets,” he said.
“He [Scalzo] did that well, stuck to that and got some good wickets.”
Lambropoulos was thrilled for opener Long, who helped the Cougars on their way with a sensible century, coming off a duck in round eight.
“He’s a very good kid,” he said. “He has got a great temperament and a fantastic technique.”
The captain-coach was pleased with the way his team responded with the bat after being bowled out for a paltry 94 against Pascoe Vale Central.
Lambropoulos said aggression would be the key for the Cougars to gain an outright victory this Saturday.
“I’ll be aggressive and hopefully we can take two more before they get to us,” he said.
Burnside Springs captain-coach Rick Hudson credited Haider Cheema for his dashing half-century and brother Taimur (11 not out) for their last wicket stand of 55.
The pair helped set a defendable total, but Hudson rued his team’s performance with the bat after being put in, scoring at almost five runs an over in the two-day game.
“It’s probably a combination of the first run out, poor decisions, a couple of loose shots and good pressure from Kealba,” he said.
“I don’t think the boys switched onto the fact that we were playing a two-day game and there were more overs on the table than what we used.”
Hudson said he wanted his team to remain upbeat ahead of the second day’s play and needed solid contributions with the bat from himself and leading run scorer Adam Spiteri to salvage anything from the game.
