BLU’s lionhearted effort not enough to reach Moama’s total

Unfortunately for the visitors, it took just two overs for the Mowers to claim the prize scalp of Chakabva (1) through Rhys Drennan, the young paceman finding an edge which landed safely in the hands of wicket-keeper Fraser Buchanan.

First drop Liam Hamilton and Kade Pearse toiled through the next five overs, where the ball was moving significantly.

However, Pearse (1) suffered the same fate as his captain, nicking behind this time off the bowling of Mitchell Stephens to Buchanan, the Mowers now in full control.

Hamilton and new man Noah Turner knuckled down and saw out Moama’s opening bowlers and began to wrestle back momentum as the innings approached 20 overs.

But a disastrous period of play saw both Hamilton (36) and Turner (25) dismissed within a ball of each other, the former caught off Matt Saunders’ bowling by Geordie Teasdale and the latter trapped lbw by Michael Hill.

With all of the Lions’ hard work undone and at 4-67, two fresh batsmen, Luke Thompson and Jake Toll, arrived at the crease.

The combination of BLU’s numbers five and six was effective as the pair opened up and looked to counter-punch through the middle overs.

As is tradition with batting, the longer you remain at the crease the easier batting becomes, particularly with bowlers becoming fatigued in the 32°C heat.

The duo’s stabilising partnership of 54 came to a close in the 43rd over after a superb bit of fielding by Hill resulted in Toll being run out for 15, and life being brought back to the Mowers.

BLU couldn’t keep Hill out of the game, as Lucas Holgate’s shot found his hands to dismiss the new batsman off Rishabh Kothari’s bowling for two.

Number seven Cameron Laird was the perfect partner to Thompson, who was on a roll in the middle.

The pair combined strongly to reassert pressure back on Moama’s bowlers through 20 overs at the crease together.

But Thompson’s vital knock of 83 came to a close when his shot found Anthony McMahon off Hill’s bowling.

Just three balls later, Shannon Bish was heading back to the sheds without score after being dismissed lbw by Hill.

At 8-204, BLU still required 92 runs for victory, deep in the tail end of its batting line-up, yet Laird, who proved to be a revelation at number seven, gave the Lions a fighting chance.

Jeremy Felmingham (14) lasted just five overs before Moama captain McMahon’s bowling gave Charles Connors an easy catch.

Laird and Simon Van Duinen managed to drag BLU to the 76th over before the dynamic number seven’s innings (65) was brought to a close after being run out by Rhys Drennan.

In what was always going to be a tough run chase for the visitors, the Lions were all out for 263, just 32 runs short of victory.

This win has propelled Moama into a comfortable third place on the ladder with just one more game before the holiday break.