Teenage wicketkeeper Jack Mattsson was a ball magnet in a stunning first XI debut behind the stumps for Williamstown in the VSDCA south-west group on Saturday.
Filling in for first-choice gloveman Hayden Castle, who was unavailable for the first game of the new year, Mattsson snared six dismissals: five catches and a stumping.
Unfortunately for Castle, the tight one-day game ended in his side’s one-wicket defeat to Elsternwick at Elsternwick Park on Saturday … but there’s no doubt the youngster left an indelible mark.
“He’s been doing really well in the seconds and he played a couple of our T20 games,” Seagulls captain Dale McDonald told
Star Weekly. “I would say at some stage, maybe next year or the year after, he will go to Premier Cricket and do pretty well.
“He’s playing in the Western Spirit under-18s pathways carnival, so he’s got a pretty big week ahead of him.
“If he sticks around, he will be a shining light for our club as a wicketkeeper-batsman.”
For Williamstown, it was a case of the one that got away.
The Seagulls carved out a competitive 8-203 off 45 overs, with McDonald (59) and Mosun Hussain (40) standouts of the top order.
Pat O’Malley (25no) and Nathan Bratby (24) produced valuable late runs to give the Gulls a decent score to defend.
After having Elsternwick an early wicket down, the Seagulls got sloppy with the ball and allowed the home side back into the game.
They handed runs on a platter to the Wicks with 12 wides, including seven to Murray Ring and four to Daniel Popa.
In a close game, the extras were more than just a bonus for the Wicks.
“Most of those wides were in the first five or six overs of our innings, which was disappointing,” McDonald said.
“To let the pressure off a bit early in the game was not great.”
Ring was still the pick of the bowlers, taking 3-28 off nine overs, including the scalp of Wicks’ leading run-scorer Cameron Christiansen for 61.
Popa was a tad expensive with 2-50 off 8.4 overs, while Bratby took 2-41 off nine.
Elsternwick found a way to get over the line, with a wicket and two balls to spare in a thriller.
“It was obviously very disappointing to get so close,” McDonald said.
Williamstown is six points out of the top six with plenty of points still on offer.
The Seagulls will travel to Moorabbin – the side sitting one spot above them on the l
adder in ninth – for a two-day game starting this weekend.
“There’s still five games to go, so we’re still an outside chance to sneak into the top six if we play well,” McDonald said. “We need to be able to beat the good teams above and especially the ones that are close to us on points. If we don’t play well, we don’t deserve to be there.”
Elsewhere, Yarraville chased down the 151 target set by Ormond with three wickets and 21 balls to spare.
Opener David Wolfe was the key to the Eagles’ victory, with 61.
It was a disastrous start to 2016 for Altona, bowled out for 86 in chasing Melton’s 99 at MacPherson Park.
That was despite a good showing earlier in the day when Aaron Maynard (5-6) and James Grubb (3-18) put the A’s into what should have been a winning position.
