Jack Donaldson was an unlikely hero for Kyabram Fire Brigade in the thrilling conclusion to its two-day Goulburn Murray Cricket under-17 match with Rochester at Northern Oval on Friday night.
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In the opening round of the season, Donaldson made a fifth-ball duck and was only required to bowl in the second-round defeat to Moama.
He batted at number nine in the round three match and came to the crease in the 29th over when James Hargreaves was the seventh Fire Brigade batsman dismissed with the team still needing 28 runs for victory.
Rochester had set a target of 6-155 from its 40 overs a week earlier on the back of an Oliver Williams half-century.
In the 30th over of the run chase, just a few balls after Donaldson arrived at the crease, Max Barnett was out with only one run added.
Donaldson and Dylan Priest (five) then put on 21 runs for the ninth wicket, before Priest was dismissed with six runs still needed for victory. Donaldson was left at the crease with number 11 Riley Carvey, who was the hero a week earlier with three wickets.
After Carver scored a vital two runs from the final ball of the 26th over, leaving just one run for victory, Donaldson hit the winning run from the second delivery of the 37th over.
Carver finished three not out and Donaldson was unbeaten on 15 (from 26 deliveries).
Earlier in the innings, opening batsman Hamish Stewart struck six boundaries in a cavalier 44-run innings, which came off just 31 deliveries. He and Hunter Fawcett (27 off 32 balls) added 52 for the third wicket.
Hard-hitting Oliver Barnett (21 with four boundaries) offered further support in the middle order as Fire Brigade creeped up on the total before Donaldson’s heroics.
Fire Brigade now sits second on the six-team table after three completed rounds and only one round remains before the Christmas break.
The team started the season with a 17-run win against Echuca Green, but suffered a 68-run loss in round two against top side Moama before completing a second win in a nail-biter against Rochester at Northern Oval on Friday night.
Teams will begin the T20 Intersport Echuca Competition before Christmas.
Two rounds will be completed on December 8 and 15, while the final qualifying round is on January 19 and the grand final on Friday, February 8.
Fire Brigade will tackle Bamawm-Lockington United at Bamawm Recreation Reserve on Friday, December 8, to start the T20 competition. It will have a second-round bye before facing Rochester at Moon Oval on January 19 in round three.
• Tongala batsmen Seth Chantler and Couper Williams did their best to ensure they set Kyabam Fire Brigade Red a reasonable tally to chase in their GMC under-15 match at Brose Oval on Thursday night.
Sent in to bat, Tongala started in reasonable fashion when opener River Townsend and Hugo Monnich Vo both scored 11.
Chantler (30 from 59 deliveries, with four boundaries), Jack Forde (23 from 38 with five boundaries) and Williams (not out 19) then made the bulk of the runs.
Williams was stepping up from the under-13 team for the match as Tongala had the bye at that level. He batted for 64 deliveries, struck four boundaries and helped his team post a competitive score from its 39.2 overs before being all out.
Tongala finished with 119 aganist the lower-ranked of the two Fire Brigade under-15 teams in the highly competitive 11-team competition.
• Top-of-the-ladder Kyabram Fire Brigade White was 7-160 at the end of its 40 overs against Bamawn-Lockington United.
Peddy Westerveld was again the dominant batsman, smashing five boundaries and two sixes as he amassed 40 runs from 27 deliveries before retiring.
There was no lack of support in the top order as openers Ethan Greiner (17 from 31) and Isaac Grealy (16 from 33) both set an early tone and Oscar Carver struck three boundaries in his unbeaten 25 before retiring on completion of his 40-delivery allocation.
Mia Elliott was 15 not out and Nicholas Barbagello eight not out when the overs ran out. The match will continue at the Kyabram P-12 College ground on Thursday.
Kyabram Redbacks had the bye.
• Kyabram Fire Brigade’s under-15 girls’ team fell just 18 runs short in its run chase against Katty Tigers on Thursday at Katamatite Recreation Reserve.
Phoebe Perrella spent a long time at the crease, facing 46 deliveries for her not out seven, but it was late innings contributions of 12 not out from Sienna Brennan and 14 not out from Penny Mason that allowed Fire Brigade to score 72 from 20 overs.
Earlier in the evening, Katty scored 5-90, with Brennan, Lexie Cottrell, Sophie and Jesse McDonald all taking wickets.
Kyabram Fire Brigade lost its round two match to Rochester by just one run after losing by 21 runs in round one to Echuca Green.
– Second-placed Kyabram Fire Brigade posted 0-122 from its 32 overs against Echuca Green at Brose Reserve on Wednesday evening in the first day of the under-13s’ two-day contest.
Six of the eight batsmen used by the team reached double figures, the most impressive of those being Xavier Dodos (25 from 30 deliveries, with five boundaries) and Aidan Greiner, who also struck five boundaries in his 21.
Archie Shepparton (22), Billy Isaac (12), Jonty Sefton (17) and Sam Chapman (11 not out) also made contributions to the tally.
• Kyabam Redbacks had a tough evening in the field against top-of-the-ladder Moama Black, which smashed 9-193 from 32 overs.
It will be a tough run chase for the Redbacks this Wednesday at the Kyabram P-12 College ground, but could have been worse if not for the bowling of Asher Porch, Rhys Parsons and Flynn Burrows.
Porch took 2-6 from two overs and Burrows 2-20 from four overs, while Rhys Parsons (2-23 from three overs) and Riley Nicholson were the other wicket-takers.
• In GMC under-11 action, Kyabram Redbacks Black’s 99 was enough to secure it victory in the Monday night match against Tongala at Kyabram P-12 College.
Tongala batted after winning the toss in the T20 match, with Nate Chantler top-scoring with 14 and Ella Forde in support with 11.
They set the Redbacks a chase total of 83 on the back of Mitchell Melverton’s 2-8 figues and wickets to Zavier Parsons, Cooper Fisher and Aiden Drew.
In response, the Redbacks were led by a four-boundary 21 top score from Zavier Parsons, 12 not out from Cooper Fisher and 11 from Aiden Drew.
Ella Forde was the pic of the Tongala bowlers with 2-8 from three overs and Jonty Keenan took 1-9 from his two overs.
• In other matches, Kyabram Fire Brigade fell 49 runs short of Moama White in their match and Kyabram Redbacks were beaten by 109 runs by Rochester Blue.
Kyabram Redbacks were best served by Cooper Ohlsen with the bat (15 not out from 13 deliveries with three boundaries), while in the Fire Brigade game Eli Coombs (16 not out) and Ryder McCormack (11 not out) were the pick of the batters.
Eli also took two wickets to complete a great all-round performance.
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