Carps start strong

The Narrandera Carp-heads A Grade team put in a strong display with the bat last Saturday in the first day of the Two Day match against the Leeton and District Ferrets at Marie Bashir Park Oval.

The Carpheads won the toss and elected to bat first on a very hard and flat wicket.

Opening batsmen Jono Doyle and Mick Foster got their team off to a flying start before Foster was dismissed for 19 with the score on 44.

Doyle and vice-captain James Sullivan continued to push the score along until Sullivan was dimissed with the score on 69. This brought Lachie Jess to the crease and he and Jono Doyle continued to push the Carpheads’ innings forward with a 48-run partnership before Doyle was dismissed for a very well played 63.

Jess (23) and Brent Lawrence (26) were able to grind out solid starts with the bat and lower order player Brodie Perram (11 off 51 balls) showed great fight to ensure the Carpheads got their first innings total to 180 all out on 59 overs.

The Carpheads got to bowl seven overs late in the day at the Ferrets and were able to pick up two key wickets to see the Ferrets finish 2 for 45 at stumps requiring a further 136 runs with eight wickets in hand to win the match.

Day 2 will get underway at 1pm this Saturday February 23 at Marie Bashir Park.

Irons and Grant lead Carps home

Some brilliant individual performances highlighted Narrandera’s two wicket victory over L&D Yellow in local B grade cricket action on Saturday.

Cooper Irons (3-4, 8 not out) and Jake Grant (57, 1-20) led from the front as Narrandera chased down the 127 required for victory in a win that seemed comfortable before it turned into a nail biter.

L&D won the toss and elected to bat but it was Narrandera who started the better, as Cooper Irons ripped through the top order in one of the best spells of bowling seen in B grade this year.

He sent Paul Rook’s stump cartwheeling in the first over, before dismissing Adrian Axtill the same way a few overs later. After he claimed his third via a caught and bowled, L&D were 3-20 and in a spot of bother.

Bryce Collins joined Peter Lashbrook and the pair added 31 before Dylan Whiteman claimed Lash-brook, with Irons taking a good catch at mid-wicket. Kai Schmetzer joined Collins and the pair added 48 before Jake Grant took his first wicket for the year, Carpheads captain Dave Kroek taking the catch to dismiss Collins for 19.

Kroek then bowled Ryan Newman for 17 before Tom Butterfield dismissed Schmetzer with a skied caught and bowled for 30.

Irons finished with 3-4 off his seven overs, which included four maidens. Butterfield, Whiteman, Grant and Kroek all took one wicket each.

L&D were all out for 126, and it was now Narrandera’s turn to bat. Ash Cabban and Connor Vearing got the chase off to a good start, adding 23 before Cabban fell for 17. Grant then joined Vearing, the pair adding 63 before Vearing was dismissed for 19.

Grant pushed on even as he lost Tom Butterfield for one, but when he fell for 57 with the score on 103 there was still 24 to get and some jitters set in. Jarrod O’Brien (six) and Brody Whiteman (zero) both fell with the score on 107, when Dylan Whiteman came in and found the boundary twice. He fell for 10 with the score on 120 and when Sam Williamson was caught and bowled for two, Narrandera were 8-120 with seven still needed to win.

Greg Irons was joined by his son Cooper, and these two took Narrandera to victory, Greg finishing one not out, and Cooper eight not out. Narrandera captain Dave Kroek was happy with the win.

“We got there in the end, there were a few nervous boys on the sidelines as we started losing wickets in the middle order so it was good when Cooper hit a couple of boundaries.”

“Cooper really set up the win for us with his bowling, 3-4 off 7 is fantastic, and it could have quite easily been 5 or 6 with the amount of plays and misses he created. Ash and Connor then did the job for us at the top, and Jake came up with a match winning innings when we needed it.”

“It puts us in a position where our destiny is in our own hands next Saturday, if we win we finish top, if not we don’t. It’s pretty simple.”

The win puts Narrandera in equal first, with the final match of the regular season this Saturday against Yanco that will decide the minor premiership.