The time for Old Students to hand out lessons has arrived.
After securing their first win of the Cricket Sheppparton Haisman Shield campaign the week prior, the Students are poised to kick off the red-ball foray successfully after a steely day-one showing against Euroa on Saturday.
It was spin to win for import Ed Pike, who cashed in on the earlier seam work from James Meek and Ben O’Brien to claim 4-63 and aid Euroa’s downfall, all out for 144.
Though the Magpies were able to grab a couple of early poles, Students sat in the driver’s seat at stumps, chasing 98 runs to win with eight wickets in hand.
Students coach Vince Gagliardi pumped air into the tyres of his entire bowling unit, stating its work as a collective was key to restricting Euroa to a gettable target.
“I thought it was a pretty good team effort, it was pretty measured to be honest,” he said.
“We’re bowling a lot better than the start of the year; we’re bowling in good areas and we got reward for that. It was pretty slow going, so wickets came from tight bowling.
“It probably comes down from our opening spells by ‘Meeky’ and Benny O’Brien.
“They bowled really tight, so it allows the spinner to come on and capitalise on and get reward from the earlier bowling — it’s that real team balance.”
Old Students were forced to play without skipper Callan McCabe as he was unavailable through illness, allowing 15-year-old recruit Bayden Hutchins to make his A-grade debut at the club.
As for Euroa, home ground advantage did little for opener Declan Redfern as he walked for a 21-ball duck off Meek before Students brought out the secret weapon: Pike.
The spinning all-rounder took the following four wickets which included the scalp of Walter Jackson (28) and, despite later cameos from Josh Robertson (29) and Ryan Hill (36), Euroa was left well short of a big score to defend.
Pike shone with the ball, but Meek was next best with sizzling figures of 3-22 off 11 overs.
When it came time for Students to pad up, Hutchins was given the nod to open, but his debut didn’t exactly go to plan as he nicked behind for one.
Fellow teenage multi-talent Oscar Lambourn found a similar fate as he too snicked into Robertson’s gloves for single digits, providing the Magpies with a sliver of hope.
But as Sam O’Brien and Felix Odell ground their feet and hung on to end the day unbeaten with 47 runs banked, Gagliardi gave his surviving blades a pass mark given the game’s circumstances.
“I thought Sammy O’Brien and Felix did a really good job — that’s tough batting at that time,” he said.
“You look at the scoreboard and it looks a bit slow, but I’d rather be 2-47 than 3-60 or 4-70 or something like that, so I think we’re in a pretty good spot.
“Felix, to his credit, he’s really batting to the situation.
“He’s been able to change the way he plays, because he’s usually pretty quick, but he understood that he had to be not out last night.”
Should Old Students progress and take maximum points from the match, it would send a welcomed gust of wind into their sails heading into fixtures against fellow bottom six outfits Pine Lodge and Karramomus.
Not wanting to get too far ahead, Gagliardi was more than content with how his side is faring at the halfway point of the home and away season.
THE GAME SO FAR
Euroa 144 (Ryan Hill 36, Josh Robertson 29, Ed Pike 4-63) leads Old Students 2-47 (Felix Odell 26*, Sam O’Brien 14*, Walter Jackson 1-9)
“From where I sit, I think we’re tracking along pretty well,” he said.
“There’s been improvement from last year; we’re not really worried about any other team.
“We’re focusing on what we can do; batting overs, bowling tight — those things that we really let slip last year.
“We’ve lost games this year, but we’ve ticked off three out the five areas we wanted to achieve during the match.
“We’ve come from a long way back, so we’ve got to put that in reality.”