By Ewen McRae
Yarraville Club is back to its old self, after posting its second straight score of 300-plus in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division.
After early wickets, the Clubbers enjoyed a strong fourth wicket partnership between Konrad Kurta and the returning Will Sheridan to set up a monster total of 7-343 in their clash with local rivals Seddon.
While both men fell short of registering a triple figure score, Clubbers coach Justin Baker said their 135-run stand set the platform for a late innings assault and another big score.
“It was a shame they couldn’t get hundreds for themselves, but they really did a great job for the side,” Baker said.
“Unfortunately we haven’t had Will for a couple of games due to work commitments, so he was pretty hungry to come back into the side and get some runs after a failure in his only game in round one. And Konrad has made a couple of 50s so he looked pretty hungry out there.
“For those two to get us through to tea just the two down, and with 140-odd on the board, that just set us up big time so we could launch an attack.”
The day started well for Seddon as it sent Aaron Cheesley (5) back to the sheds cheaply, and when his fellow opener Johnathon Blake was run out for just 11 the task got harder for the hosts.
From there Kurta and Sheridan were able to steady the ship, scoring largely in boundaries as they batted through to the tea break and looked set for big scores.
The partnership was broken when Kurta was caught on the fence for 91, and Sheridan enjoyed a 44-run partnership with his captain Andrew Cullen before he too departed for 89.
Photo Gallery: Yarraville Club vs Seddon
From there the Clubbers put the foot down, with aggressive knocks coming from Cullen (40), Baker (37) and Joseph Blake (32 not out) to push the score beyond 300.
The Seddon bowlers struggled as the day wore on, but Tom Kriebardis (2-46) and Kendrick Hatton (2-83) were able to grab a pair of wickets each.
After dropping the first two games of the season, Baker said a change in mindset was behind his side’s revival, which has seen it score more than 700 runs in the past two games.
“We had a chat amongst ourselves after being 0-2, and since then the batsmen have certainly been doing there jobs so it’s up to the bowlers now to do the same,” he said.
“I think mental application has been the big change. We haven’t had our full strength team all year, but I think we were a bit lazy early doors and just thought it would all happen.
“The great thing about our team is we have so much knowledge and experience in there that when we do the basics well and show the opposition more respect it turns around.”
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