A Team

The unbeaten Phillip Island Sharks continued on their merry way on Saturday amassing 3/273 off their 40 overs.

Talented Island openers Eli Richards (75) and Lachlan Cleeland (110) took the sword to the Nereena attack showing no mercy to any bowler.
Both batsmen set the tone early by using their feet to wily off spinner Damien Symmons (an LDCA legend) thumping him down the ground for boundaries.
A feature of this pair’s second century plus opening stand was their electric running between wickets.
Stroke placement and a good understanding between the batsmen saw twos turned into threes and singles picked regularly.

Eli hit six fours and one six in his innings adding 169 runs with Lachlan for the opening stand.
This feat was only nine runs shy of the club record for that wicket which is held by current chairman of selectors Andy O’Brien and Russell Cleeland.
With Eli’s departure Daniel Mock (51 including one four and three sixes) joined Lachlan to continue the carnage.
Fieldsmen made regular trips to the car park to retrieve the Kookaburra ball that had taken a hammering.

The pair added 63 for the second wicket in quick time as Mock guided Cleeland to his second century of the season.
Daniel Mock’s presence at the Island club has lifted and reassured the batting of both Richards and Cleeland who have carried the club’s batting stocks for years.

After a flawless 90 Lachlan gave a difficult caught and bowled chance and was missed stumped when the keeper couldn’t retrieve a wide one.
Eventually out for 110 to a full toss, caught in close, Lachlan had kept the rowdy “Hill” crowd entertained while 232 runs had been added.
Daniel Mock departed bowled at 255 and Tom Keily and Shiran “Shorty” Rathanayake (who might have tweaked a hammy) saw proceedings through to the final score of 273 ending up 10 not out each.

Nereena were on a hiding to nothing chasing down the Island’s big total.
Simon Curtin opened up bowling from the top end at the Cowes ground and had some real heat on the Kookaburra making it fly through to gloveman Jarrod Black.

Nereena opening bat Damien Symmons couldn’t find the ball with a Geiger Counter let alone his bat and when Island skipper Max Royal threw him out with a direct hit the signs were ominous.
One for 20 became, 2 for 28 and then 3 for 30 with Symmons, Wightman and Clark, Nereena’s three best batsmen back in the pavilion.
What followed was complete capitulation as the Island rolled Nereena for 63 in a very one-sided match.
Island opening bowler Tom Keily took the honours grabbing 4 for 26 after switching ends.
Tom’s early spell, bowling up the character testing hill saw him concede eight wides and struggle to maintain consistent line.
Coming down the hill from the “Simon Curtin End” Keily tore the heart out of the Nereena middle order.

A shining light for Nereena was opening batsman Checkley who scored 22 being seventh batsman dismissed which was a credit to the young player in amongst the mayhem.
Shiran “Shorty” Rathanayake (1 for 8 off 6 overs), Maxie Royal (2 for 7 off 6 overs) and Chari Keerthisinghe (2 for 16 off 5 overs) rounded out a very convincing performance by the pie chuckers to complement the awesome batting display.

The Islanders now sit 30 points clear at the top of the table and next week travel to “The Bunker” to play last season’s Grand Finalists and current equal second placed team Leongatha Town.
The Islanders are on a roll so get your loose change out from under the bed and head to Ladbrokes as the lads are focused on holding the cup in March.

Go Sharks!

B1

Once again another great game between ourselves and Koonwarra.
With the last four or five games being decided in the last over or a few runs, why should this one of be any different, with this this being the last of our T20 matches for the season.
After losing the toss and been sent into bat, we got off to an ok start but in a funny batting display, where no one really got on top of their bowling, we still managed to score 109 off our 20 overs.
Angelo made 20, Beaumont 18 and McIntyre 15.

All three batsmen got starts but couldn’t go on unfortunately.
Then we went out into the field and got a run out in the first over with same great fielding from the big D. 
But then Koony got on top, and were cruising along at 1/40.

Enter young tearaway quick Zac walker, who bowled a great spell picking up 3/12 off his four overs and Kurt Lane at the other end 1/13 off 3.
We then took a punt and took all the pace off the ball, bringing on Blackers who bowled two overs 1/7
Unfortunately his last ball of his second over got hit for four.
With Koonwara needing just six to win, the last over went to Andrew Tolley who had bowled well to that point, but with the field up to go for the win, they hit the winning runs and we went down with

three balls remaining, finishing on 8/111.
Another classic contest between these two sides.

RSL Man of the Match was Zac Walker.

B2

With B2 losing three players including our skipper to other grades and Covid, it was going to be tough against ladder leader OMK at Rhyll in our T20 clash.
We batted first and a great start by Connor Epifano and Kev Taylor saw us get to 35 before we lost Connor for 21.

We lost a couple of quick wickets but a nice partnership from Kev and Keats took the score to 73 when Kev was out for 24.
Pete Cleary came in and scored a nice run a ball 28, and with Keats making 23, we got to 6-115 off our 20 overs.

We started our bowling effort well with Tim Niven picking up an early wicket, but from there the very experienced OMK side took advantage of the small ground and promptly picked up the win – only three wickets down with five overs still to go.

A tough day but we look forward to getting back on the winners list next week.

C2 Yellow 

The undefeated Phillip Island C2 yellow side took on Koonwarra L/RSL Gold at the Velodrome.
Phillip Island bowled first, and some excellent bowling from Daniel Caffieri dismissed Koonwarra’s opener.
Shortly after, Jack Huther took an excellent catch off Max Arceo’s bowling.

The next over, Dave Fusinato took an incredible, diving catch off Tarryn Allan which left Koonwarra 3-20.

Koonwarra formed a small partnership before George McCausland picked up two quick wickets putting himself on a hat-trick. Unfortunately he didn’t complete it but he got another wicket soon after.
Daniel Caffieri took another wicket and Daniel McCausland took another in the final over. Koonwarra reached 8-53 at the end of their 20 overs.
George finished with 3 for 5, Daniel Caffieri with 2 for 6, Max Arceo 1 for 16, Tarryn with 1 for 9, DMac with 1 for 10 and Jack Huther 0 for 5 despite bowling well.
Dave Kenter and Dave Fusinato opened the batting together however Dave Kenter fell early for 5.
Brady Ross came in at three and tried to take on the slower bowling before getting stumped for 0.
Drew Fusinato came in and played some marvellous strokes and scored his first senior runs before getting bowled.

With three wickets gone early Ollie Duggan and Dave Fusinato steadied the ship with an excellent partnership before Dave fell for 9.
Max Arceo and Ollie saw us home comfortably with some excellent shots.
Ollie Duggan finished on 24, Max on 4, Dave Fusinato on 9, Dave Kenter on 5, Drew on 1 and Brady on 0.

With this win we move up to third and take on Leongatha Town next week at Newhaven.