A spirited fightback late in the day has seen Lakes Entrance work its way back into the two-night match against St Mary’s Nagle in round 14 of the Bairnsdale Cricket Association (BCA) “A” grade competition at Nagle College last Saturday.
The Seagulls worked hard to reach 3-112 (49 overs) in tough conditions, before losing 6/21 in 14 overs, slumping to 9/133, in a match that they had to win to keep the finals dream alive.
Lakes Entrance fell victim to an exceptional spell of bowling from Nagle skipper Ricky Tatnell who picked up 5/10 in a seven-over spell, removing Ollie Chaplin, Noah Dodd, Ben John, Jack Reggardo and Ben Rotheram.
Tail-enders, Scott Tite (35 from 42 balls) and Laurie Thomson (two not out) added 34 for the final wicket, getting the score to 167, at least giving the bowling attack a total to try to defend.
Bowled out in 70 overs, Lakes Entrance had 10 overs to try to make some inroads into the Saints’ top order, and that is what they did, picking up three late wickets, to even the match right up, and possibly even put their nose in front.
After negotiating the first five overs, the home side lost five wickets in 12 balls, going to stumps at 3/20, with key players Tatnell (7) and Brayden McCarrey (1) not out and holding the key to their side’s chances of victory.
They lost Hywel Nichols, Fraser Gibson and Jacob Hurray all clean bowled as stumps beckoned, to the bowling of Dodd, Tite and Chaplin respectively.
Tite impressed, steaming in from the primary school end, getting a ball to cut back and remove Gibson.
Dodd picked up Nicholls, only to be replaced in his next over by Chaplin, who beat Hurry all ends up with a tweaker.
Interestingly, the Seagulls opted to replace Chaplin after one over, hoping that the pattern might continue, but Tatnell played new bowler, Sam East with relative ease, one sensed the visitors missed a golden opportunity to put maximum pressure on the batsmen for the final over of the day.
Earlier, Liam Allen (33 from 85), Kaleb Day (23 from 73), Chaplin (14 from 70) and Ben John (38 from 71) all worked hard with the bat for Lakes Entrance in challenging conditions where even free-flowing batsmen like John struggled to accumulate runs.
But the story was that the lion-hearted and highly skilled and relentless Tatnell tore through the Seagulls’ middle order with relative ease, finishing with 7/53 from 25 overs, well assisted by Randall Stewart who finished with 2/49 from
21 overs.
Patrick McGinty, in just his first “A” grade game at just 13 years of age, certainly wasn’t overawed by the occasion, finishing with
0/26 from 10 overs in a promising debut.
Day two looks set for a exciting finish, with Lakes Entrance desperate for a winning result, their case for a finals spot slightly improved by the current state of a couple of other matches.
McCarrey and Tatnell will obviously be the big wickets on several occasions, this season it has unravelled quickly after their departure.
Tatnell looked in an aggressive frame of mind with the bat when he came to the crease on Saturday, he’s unlikely to bat as conservatively as some of his Seagull opponents, so a result in this match could come earlier than in several of the
other matches.
Tite, Jake Le Maitre, Dodd, Chaplin and Day bowl
tight and don’t give much away, so an interesting contest beckons.
