Sport
13 February, 2023
Owls take vital 31-run victory over Colts to shake up top-two race
Maryborough strengthened their credentials as a potential premiership threat by defeating Colts Phelans by 31 runs on Saturday afternoon. The Owls won the toss and decided to take advantage of the warm conditions by batting first, and immediately...
Maryborough strengthened their credentials as a potential premiership threat by defeating Colts Phelans by 31 runs on Saturday afternoon.
The Owls won the toss and decided to take advantage of the warm conditions by batting first, and immediately set to work on putting on a total that they could defend.
Sam Bartlett and Jackson Goodwin opened the batting, and were able to put on 55 at a good pace before Goodwin caught the edge from Ben Stubbings straight to Liam Tatchell for Colts’ first wicket.
Stubbings was bowling excellently in the early stages, and was rewarded with a second wicket when he similarly found the edge of Tom Hart’s bat, before following up by clean-bowling Lachlan Morganti soon after, collecting their first three wickets.
However, by that time, the Owls had already put on 89 runs, with Bartlett anchoring a large part of the innings.
Wayne Stubbings soon came on and removed Martin Dell for 12, with the game in the balance for the Owls at 4/106.
But Todd Doran had one of his most important innings of the season to date, putting on an important 28 runs in partnership with Bartlett, with the duo sharing in a 46-run stand before Bartlett holed out to Richie Clark for 71 off the bowling of Rhys Egan.
On the second-last ball of the innings, Doran caught an edge straight to Tatchell off Egan’s bowling for his second wicket, which meant that the Owls had a manageable total of 6/172 to defend.
The Stubbings’ combined for four wickets, with Ben proving to be the pick of the bowlers, taking 3/21 off eight overs, while Egan finished with 2/32 off six overs.
Wayne and Callum Watts came to the crease knowing that they needed quick runs to make Colts comfortable in their run chase, while on the flip side, the Owls needed early wickets to give themselves some breathing space.
In the end, the latter scenario would play out.
Dell opened the bowling alongside Harry Lumsden and immediately held down his end, making it hard for the Colts top-order to get runs away, and was rewarded with the wicket of Watts for three runs, clean-bowling him.
Wayne and Ed Foreman put on 18 runs for the second wicket, but the introduction of Liam Maffescioni into the attack helped change the game for the Owls, and he was rewarded with two wickets in two bowls, both of them clean bowling both Wayne and Egan.
Rhys Wagstaff was unable to stop the rot, with Morganti finding the edge to Doran to leave Colts 4/36.
However, Foreman and Jackson Gordon fought hard to try to keep Colts in the game.
Foreman made a fighting 23 and helped get Colts to 61 before he too found the edge off Morganti’s bowling to Doran, and that was soon followed by Tatchell going out in a similar fashion, leaving Colts 6/73.
Gordon and Matt Scott fought hard to put on 26 for the seventh wicket, a partnership which ended when Bartlett got into the act with the ball, running out the latter.
The eighth wicket was Colts’ best partnership of the day, with Clark made a well-constructed 24, while Gordon eventually top-scored with 36 before Bartlett struck, finding another edge to Doran for his fourth catch of the afternoon.
Bartlett would eventually finish off the innings with two quick wickets in the final over, removing both Nicholas Henderson and Ben by clean bowling both batsmen to end Colts’ innings with just one ball to spare on 141.
Both Bartlett and Morganti enjoyed sparkling innings with the ball, with Morganti leading the way with 3/18, while Bartlett took 3/19. Maffescioni also chipped in with 2/31.
The result leaves the Owls just three points behind Colts on the ladder, now requiring an outright victory over Beaufort to stand any chance of claiming a top-two position on the ladder at season’s end.