Harper Sercombe
Sunbury United is in a good position in its round six Gisborne and District Cricket Association McIntyre Cup two-day clash against Diggers Rest Bulla.
United lost the toss and were sent in to bat on Saturday afternoon at the Diggers Rest Recreation Reserve and took to the task fantastically.
United’s middle order were the standouts with three quarters of the teams’ runs coming from batsmen four through seven, headlined by the number seven batsman Aaron Wright, top scoring with 61.
Captain-coach Upul Fernando also played his role coming in at number four, notching up a half century, to get the team to 238 runs, with the side bowled out with one ball remaining.
“Yeah, after having a bad three weeks, I’m so happy that we got it together and everyone did their jobs right,” Fernando said.
“We have been underperforming a little bit over the last three weeks.
“Everyone’s been standing up, especially our top order, they’re having a lot less low scores now, so they’ve been standing up to the challenge.
“Only half the job’s done now so we’ll come back next week and try to get the 10 wickets.”
Fernando was particularly happy with the partnership built between Wright and Amrit Sandhu.
“It was Wright’s first game in the McIntyre this year,” he said.
“We’ve had a few guys unwell and not available, so we gave Aaron a chance, he was the best candidate so we picked him and put him at seven and he’s done his job for the club.
“So, I’m happy with him being back to his best.”
Alex Hassett took 4-29 for the Burras.
Fernando said the method to the club’s success will be to stick to what they train as they look to go one step further than last season.
“We talk about the lengths and the lines we want to bowl,” he said.
“And also the catches, as they say catches win matches.
“We’re confident about this week and bowling good lines and hitting the wickets more and make the batsmen play more and take the catches if they come.
“These are the areas we are going to work on, other than that everything else is going well so far.”
A win on Saturday will take United to three wins and three loses, setting the club up nicely as it heads towards the Christmas break.
“At the end of the day, if you have four or five wins before the Christmas break it would be great,” Fernando said.
“But cricket’s a funny game, so I’m not going too deep or too far, just looking one week at a time.
“Our batsmen have done the job for us this week, so we will just now consider how to take 10 wickets with our plans and we’ll execute our plans on Tuesday and Thursday and come back strong on the weekend.”
In other McIntyre Cup results, Romsey got away to a nice start in its clash with Macedon making 8-302 after 80 overs. Corey Day top-scored with 86 not out.
Woodend also made a promising start to its match against the Sunbury Kangaroos, making 8-243 from 67 overs. Opening batsman Marcus Stewart was his club’s best with 73.
Gisborne is in a commanding position against Rupertswood. Gisborne dismissed Rupo for 147 and are 3-90 at stumps. Jarryd Vernon took 4-30 from his 16 overs for Gisborne.
