Is there a more terrifying bird than a magpie?
All you can do is duck for cover when they’re in full flight and ready to swoop.
The Bushrangers know this all too well after their run-in with Wangaratta at Gardens Oval on Saturday afternoon in the Wangaratta and District Cricket Association.
Half-centuries from Cooper Matheson and Jack Davies put the Magpies in a commanding position, and the bowling attack put the Bushrangers under immense pressure.
Wangaratta claimed a dominant 81-run win.
Match report:
Temperatures hit the mid-30s as the toss was taken, and fortune favoured Wangaratta.
They sent Benalla in to bowl in the blistering heat.
The opening partnership of Matheson and Nicholas Pell looked solid.
Matheson had runs flowing early on, while Pell rotated strike when he could.
Mitchell Wheelands got the breakthrough in the seventh over, as Pell had to depart after being caught.
With Davies stepping up to the crease and constantly chipping away at the score with Matheson, Benalla was quickly put on the back foot.
The next wicket did not fall until the 25th over when Daniel Brew got the wicket of Matheson, but not before the batter made a game-high 66 runs.
While wickets fell more regularly after this point, Davies remained a constant at the crease.
While the batters around him fell, all but Fraser Ellis, who departed for a single run, contributed at least 16 runs to the total.
Davies closed out the 40 overs with 53 runs, with the Magpies amounting a total of 190.
The total was not out of Benalla’s wheelhouse, but the pressure was on to get the runs flowing.
But as Wangaratta took to the field, they made it their mission to make runs hard to come by.
The opening bowling partnership of Matt Gathercole and Thomas Clayton was consistent, hardly bowling a bad ball between them.
The fielders also played their role in pouncing on the ball, denying the batters any chance of rotating the strike regularly.
After 10 overs, Benalla was 1/23, far behind the required run rate.
The slow run rate continued until the start of the 16th over when Michael Honman was out LBW off a Zac Guilfoyle delivery.
Player-coach Priyank “Sunny” Chohan stepped up to the crease with a point to prove and had the run rate up with several boundaries.
But down the other end, the Benalla batters could not make a mark.
Gary Priest and Jonty Priest could only contribute single-figure totals, while Daniel Brew and George Lithgow were out in consecutive balls for a duck and a golden duck, respectively, at the end of the 25th over.
Fraser Ellis was on a hattrick but would have to wait until the 27th over for his shot at glory, but he was called into action with the first ball of the 26th.
Sunny skied the Frazer Dent delivery, and Ellis took an easy catch to claim Wangaratta a team hat trick.
Ellis was unable to claim a personal hat trick at the start of the 27th over, but by then, the writing was on the wall.
Despite a spirited effort from the Benalla tail, with Susanka Gamage smacking two fours off his first two balls, the home side was all out for 109 runs.
Guilfoyle had the best figures for the Magpies, picking up four wickets for 19 runs.
The win sees the Magpies put space between Benalla on the Wangaratta and District Cricket Association A-grade ladder.
The Bushrangers will begin a two-day match against Ovens United this Saturday at Gardens Oval.