Sport
18 March, 2025
Magpies swoop on Owls, return to final
Clunes has showcased why they are the reigning premiers of A reserve, with their dominant four-wicket victory over minor premiers Maryborough keeping their chances of a repeat intact.
Maryborough won the toss and elected to bat first, looking for a repeat of their two victories against Clunes in the regular season.
Openers Ben Hoban and Lachlan Bursill got the Owls onto the right foot, scoring 23 runs from the first seven overs.
That is when the Magpies’ bowling attack kicked into turbo gear, commencing one of the most dominant bowling displays of the season.
First, Brad Stevenson removed Hoban and Jasper Trickey on consecutive balls, and while he didn’t convert on the hat-trick opportunity, he dismissed Ben Robertson in his next over for two.
That put Maryborough on the back foot at 3/25 and young gun Brett Coon sent a one-two punch to put the Owls on the ropes, dismissing Lachlan Bursill and Bradey Tranter for 14 and six respectively.
Three balls after Coon removed Tranter, Stevenson was on a hat-trick once again after bowling Jason Hunt and Troy Bursill to have the Owls in no man’s land at 7/33.
After Brett Coon claimed his third wicket by bowling Jacob Glen for six, fellow youngsters Sam Thomson and Oliver Cassidy tried to make Maryborough reach a defendable total.
However, Dylan Davies claimed the last two wickets as Maryborough was bowled out for 62.
Stevenson was a wrecking ball to the Owls’ batting lineup, finishing on 5/18 from eight overs while Lachlan Bursill top-scored for Maryborough, making 14.
While the Magpies were in the driver’s seat, the Owls seemed confident they could pull off a great escape after bowling Clunes out for less than 62 in both their regular season matches.
Even with breakthroughs from Hunt, Tranter and Cassidy, the Magpies were able to chip away at the total, with Mark Jenkin, Coon and Daniel Fordham all reaching double digits.
With Clunes sitting pretty at 3/58, the Owls caused some scares when Sam Ross and Trickey combined to grab three wickets from three runs before Noah Davies hit the winning runs for the Magpies.
Jenkin finished with a high score of 19 while Ross was the only multiple wicket taker for the Owls, grabbing 2/7 from four overs.