Euroa’s mid-season Cricket Shepparton Haisman Shield revival continued on Saturday, with an impressive win over Shepparton United helping the side climb the ladder.
Bouncing back from a tricky start to the campaign, the Magpies did what they needed to at home, producing a 107-run win.
Happy with his side’s performance, Euroa coach Andrew Squires said it had been working hard on its top-order performances.
“They’ve worked on that all season and yesterday the two openers, Scott (Hamilton) and Vaughan (Kirk), really committed to the cause and knuckled down and got us off to a great start and that set us up for a really good day,” Squires said.
“Everyone contributed yesterday which was really good to see, we’ve just been working on everyone knowing their place and just doing their bit and on Saturday it just all sort of came together for us, so I’m just very happy with how Saturday turned out.”
Deciding to bat first, Euroa’s opening duo piled on a 127-run partnership and despite suffering two quick wickets, the side steadied the ship and posted a score of 6-217.
A daunting total to bat towards, the challenge was made harder when Euroa’s William Jackson removed United captain Chaminda Vidanapathirana and Steven Tate early.
This start proved to be a sign of things to come, as Cohen Paul (3-22), Sham Dadallage (2-15), Siva Manikanta Velagala (2-34) and Vaughan Kirk (1-12) joined Jackson in dismissing United for 110.
“It’s just really good to see the young blokes getting reward for effort,” Squires said.
“They’ve put in a lot of work over the off-season, we had a number of our players still train the whole way through the couple of weeks off which is just great to see.”
Admitting the final score did not reflect the game that was played, Squires said it was an enjoyable game of cricket for all involved.
“United came out really hard with the ball,” he said.
“To bowl first on Saturday on a stinking hot day they did really really well, the scores don’t reflect the whole game.
“They came at us pretty hard and our guys stood up to it and then we went back hard at them and they stood up as well, it was actually a really good contest between two clubs that are trying to get better.”
THE GAME
Euroa 6-217 (Scott Hamilton 62, Vaughan Kirk 52, Chaminda Vidanapathirana 3-32) d Shepparton United 110 (Hamish McGregor 21, Cohen Paul 3-22, William Jackson 2-14, Sham Dadallage 2-15)
STAR PLAYER
Scott Hamilton (Euroa): Posting an impressive 62 at the top of the order, Euroa captain Hamilton did what needed to be done on Saturday. Joining Vaughan Kirk as opener, Hamilton’s score helped set up the victory.