Sport
19 January, 2023
Owls and Magpies in bird battle
Maryborough and Clunes meet in an intriguing encounter at Princes Park over the next fortnight, with the winner keeping their two-day destiny alive. With Colts Phelans taking an outright victory last week and the everlasting threat of Laanecoorie...
Maryborough and Clunes meet in an intriguing encounter at Princes Park over the next fortnight, with the winner keeping their two-day destiny alive.
With Colts Phelans taking an outright victory last week and the everlasting threat of Laanecoorie Dunolly, there is a fresh sense of urgency from the chasing pack despite it being the second of five rounds of two-day competition, and nothing but a victory will suffice as a result.
Maryborough suffered a setback last week when they were defeated by 82 runs by Laane. However, despite the result, it was not all doom and gloom — in fact, there were some significant positives that the Owls could take from their clash.
At times, they looked super-competitive against a good bowling attack, with Sam Bartlett and Mitch McClure weathering an early bowling storm that saw them 4/41 to put on a 55-run partnership, while the form of Lachlan Morganti at the batting crease, who made 58, certainly won’t have hurt going forward in terms of gaining some good middle-order support.
The challenge for the Owls is not to lose their wickets in clumps, which was a key determining factor against Laane. Just two partnerships yielded more than 25 runs over the past fortnight, and with a target of 270 to chase, they were on the back foot after just five overs on Saturday.
Key to ensuring they would not have to do as much with the bat against Clunes is by keeping their top order in check. The Owls had their good performers with the ball when it was their time to field, with Liam Maffescioni taking 3/29, Morganti taking 2/37 and Harry Lumsden taking 2/40 against Laane.
Clunes, on the other hand, will be looking to buck some significant trends in their first two-day match of the season.
The Magpies have just one batsmen in the competition’s top 10 run-scorers — that being Anthony Ellis, with 110 runs, sitting in 10th place.
They will be looking for Ellis and Mark Allen to put together a strong start with the bat to give themselves the best chance of victory, and if needed, get good middle-order runs from captain Aidan Thompson, Ashley Gunn and Brendan Ingram to give themselves the best possible chance of victory if they were to bat first.
Likewise, the Magpies will be desperate to take some early wickets and have their bowling attack return to form.
Since their victory over Beaufort on November 12, the Magpies have only been able to take six wickets across three games — and just one against Maryborough in their last outing.
On that occasion, Mitchell Coppick’s 27 and Gunn’s 24 helped guide Clunes to 117 off 35 overs, but were no match for the Owls’ top order, with Tom Hart top-scoring with 67, and Bartlett chipping in with 27, as the Owls were able to chase down their target in just 20 overs.