ALTONA’S overseas import Joshua Wells dragged his side to a nine-run win over Yarraville in a tense, low-scoring Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association south-west group local derby at Frank Kirk Oval on Saturday.
The A’s showed incredible powers of recovery to come back and take the points in a thriller.
The home side lost the toss and was sent in on a track on which it was difficult to score runs.
They slumped to 5-11 before Wells saved the innings with a timely 59.
The next-best score for the A’s was 38 extras, including a ridiculous 29 wides, which the Eagles were rueing on Saturday evening.
Owen Alsop (11), Simon Jackson (14) and Stefan Sidari (11no) couldn’t know it at the time, but their contributions with the bat were to be invaluable in the outcome.
Eagles captain Alex Hewet continued his stellar start to the season with the ball.
The skipper took 4-6 off nine overs to take his season tally to an incredible 8-13 off 17.1 overs. Adam Yates cleaned up the tail with 3-28 as the A’s finished on 138 from 44.4 overs.
Yarraville’s chase was uncertain right the way through.
The only rock for the Eagles at the top of the order was highly rated Matthew Harrison with 29.
A stream of wickets came from all sources in the A’s’ bowling attack with six bowlers claiming a scalp, while Alsop, Jake Duff, Lee Elmore and Sidari claimed two each.
The Eagles got starts from Hewet (17) and McRae (16) in the middle order and Daniel Torre (16) and Patrick Prestidge (19no) in the tail, but it could not stop them from being upended for 129 in 37 overs.
The A’s made it two wins from two starts, while Yarraville was left to ponder the one that got away.
VSDCA RESULTS
Firsts: Brighton 8-149 (D Popa 2-10 M Ferrie 2-18) d Williamstown 148 (BL Hodges 68); Altona 138 (J Wells 59 A Hewet 4-6 AJ Yates 3-28 N Parish 2-26) d Yarraville 129 (MM Harrison 29 S Sidari 2-12 L Elmore 2-21 O Alsop 2-24 J Duff 2-25)
Seconds: Williamstown 75 (N Bratby 27) lt Brighton 4-76 (J Flood-Bauce 4-22), Yarraville drew Altona
Thirds: Coburg drew Williamstown, Altona 7-172 (F Ali 46 J Donazzon 40 M Findlay 2-14 A Sikandar 2-24) d Yarraville 7-166 (B Jones 44 R Keenan 32)
Fourths: Yarraville 113 (M Beasley 65 J King 3-20 A Rafferty 2-13 AE Peters 2-26) lt Altona 7-118 (N Birthisel 35no A Rafferty 28 K Thavarajah 3-14 J Scholes 2-9); Williamstown 4-120 (T Ball 31) d Coburg 117 (M Lauder 3-20 B El-Kurdi 3-26 U Malik 2-25)
