Cricket
8 December, 2024
Horsham City Oval hosts thrilling junior cricket match
The Horsham City Oval hosted its second Saturday night junior cricket match of the season. This time, the Horsham Tigers and Rup/Minyip Panthers were battling it out in the under-14s in a game that went down to the wire.
The Horsham Tigers won the toss and elected to bat. William McCurdy was in the thick of the action early for the Panthers, involved in three of the first four wickets of the match, running out Archie Knight, and then taking two wickets in three balls in the fourth over of the game, dismissing Joel Plazzer for three and bowling Jordan Terry for a duck.
Harry Noonan also bowled well and took the prized wicket of Hugh Miller, and the Tigers were reeling at 4/18 with a mountain to climb.
Arkie Mackley and Harvey Brown took to the pitch and put on a partnership, batting for six overs before Mackley retired not out on 11.
Brown stayed at the crease and remained unbeaten on six, while Ryan Steadman fell for a duck, Rory Hudson nine, Bailey Dridan a duck, James Mackereth one, and Cooper Puls three, to be bowled out for 67 in the 20th over.
William McCurdy finished with figures of 2/2 (2), and Nate Talbot also took two wickets, finishing on 2/8 (2). Lenny McQueen 1/10 (2), Brodie Mathews 1/4 (2), Amba Zolj 1/10 (2), Jobe Van Zelst 1/8 (2) and Harry Noonan 1/10 (2) were the other wicket-takers.
In reply, the Tigers stunned the Panthers early. Archie Knight, Bailey Dridan, James Mackereth, and Rory Hudson all bowled well, picking up wickets, Hudson with two, as the Panthers fell to 5/14.
The Panthers battled hard, and when Lewis Gellatly retired not out on 21, they needed nine runs with nine balls left.
They couldn't make the total, losing two wickets, including a run-out on the last ball, with Jordan Terry running out William McCurdy. They went down by five runs, finishing on 62 after 20 overs.
Bailey Dridan 2/11 (2), James Mackereth 2/11 (2), Rory Hudson 2/14 (2) and Archie Knight 1/7 (2) were the wicket-takers for the Panthers.
The other match between the Bullants and Blackheath Dimboola was abandoned. In the under-16 mixed, the matches were abandoned due to rain.
