Sport
15 January, 2024
Clunes miss out on outright win by one wicket
Clunes fell desperately short of an outright victory by just one wicket, but regardless, took a big step towards finals with a comfortable first-innings points win. Resuming on 5/177, with captain Mitch Coppick on 61 and in sight of a century, as...
Clunes fell desperately short of an outright victory by just one wicket, but regardless, took a big step towards finals with a comfortable first-innings points win.
Resuming on 5/177, with captain Mitch Coppick on 61 and in sight of a century, as well as Brendan Ingram on eight, the duo combined well early in the afternoon to put on a further 56 runs to their partnership, which was ended when Ingram hit a Ritik Yadav delivery straight to Caleb Cluff for 35, ending his best knock of the season.
Coppick was able to get to 88 before he fell just short of a century, with Atticus Cullinan claiming his wicket when he lured Coppick into an edge straight to William Coutts behind the stumps.
That allowed Carisbrook to clean up the tail fairly conveniently, with Jaxon Smyth becoming Yadav’s fifth victim on debut in an excellent first-up performance, before Josh Dunn was bowled by Cullinan, with Clunes finishing on 244.
Yadav had figures of 5/40 off 22 overs, while Cullinan finished with 2/50.
Carisbrook needed to make 182 runs to make Clunes bat again, and it wasn’t an ideal start when Coutts was bowled by Smyth early on to make it 1/1.
Soon, Lachlan Morganti would come on and cause some chaos, taking two quick wickets, luring Cole Harris into a shot straight to Jude McGuire behind the stumps, before trapping Dean Nalder in front for LBW to leave Carisbrook in a precarious position at 3/18.
But Cluff and Brayden Wright would soon steady the ship.
Cluff, in particular, was able to showcase his years of experience by playing disciplined cricket, while Wright was getting some good time at the crease on debut.
It was enough to see Carisbrook get to tea at 3/66, with 116 runs still to get to make Clunes bat again, but more to the point, they still had seven wickets in hand.
But it was Morganti again on resumption who had Carisbrook in strife, staying in the game, and had the big wicket of Cluff for 36 when he caught him off his own bowling.
Morganti also stayed involved when Noah Davies was able to lure a shot straight to him to get the wicket of Wright for 29, before Davies was soon on a hattrick, claiming Yadav first ball when he hit a shot straight to Smyth.
It looked as though Morganti was going to guide the Magpies to victory when he claimed the wickets of Elliott Cullinan for 10 and Jarryd Coghlan for four, with Carisbrook teetering on 8/103.
But some good disciplined batting from Atticus and also James Adam helped frustrate the Magpies.
Atticus made 21, while Adam was continuing to bat well as he has throughout the season.
Smyth made things exciting for the Magpies when he got the wicket of Atticus, with just one more wicket required for an outright victory.
But Adam and Nick Broad were defensive and protected their wicket right to the end.
Broad was terrific in his endeavours of protecting his wicket, going scoreless for 34 balls, while Adam, likewise, was continuing to play well, blocking out 56 balls, while also making 14 runs in the process.
In the end, Clunes couldn’t quite find the final wicket to take an outright victory, although they would be pleased with their overall performance with both bat and ball first-up in the two-day format.
Morganti was the star, taking 5/29 off 23 overs, which included 13 maidens, while Davies (2/27) and Smyth (2/31) also bowled well.