Kyabram has looked much more like its old self in the past fortnight with two monumental performances adding up to one enormous victory over Euroa.
The Redbacks have taken to the format switch like, well, a redback would take to an obscure corner of your roof that you just can’t reach with the broom handle to try and get it outside.
Euroa had a monstrous task ahead after failing to make any meaningful headway on day one and two bites of the cherry couldn’t bring it anywhere close to a first Haisman Shield win either.
THE GAME
Kyabram 4-407 dec (Kyle Mueller 158, Cade Mueller 111, Cohen Paul 3-151) d Euroa 106 (Nicholas Hill 46, Declan Redfern 24*, Tom Holman 5-24) and 5-84 (Walter Jackson 30, Louis Sabbagh-Holt 3-13, Tom Holman 2-11)
STAR PLAYER
Kyle Mueller (Kyabram): It was exceptionally hard to look past Holman’s terrific day two in his first game for the season, but Mueller’s sensational knock on day one, the first in this year’s Haisman Shield to raise the bat three times, totally took the game away.
In barely half the day’s overs, Tom Holman’s five-for led the charge to skittle Euroa for 106 as the Magpies’ lower-order fell away yet again, losing their final five wickets for 17.
Captain Scott Hamilton, dismissed first ball by Charlie McLay, was one of four Euroa ducks in the first reply innings with no momentum to be found heading into the follow-on.
Still 301 runs adrift and with the tie effectively sealed, Louis Sabbagh-Holt put three exclamation marks on a total blowout with the lion’s share of Kyabram’s five additional scalps.
Andrew Butterworth did all he possibly could ― that is, by doing rather little at all on the scoreboard ― to try and avoid the embarrassment of being stuck with an outright on the day, and his six runs from 66 balls in the follow-on may have made a big difference to that end.
There was no hope beyond that, however, and Jackson McLay’s side reaps the benefits of a job well done.
“The Muellers were the two class batsmen and then Tommy Holman was a class above with the ball over the course of the two innings,” McLay said.
“I thought all the bowlers did a fantastic job.
“We weren’t quite good enough to get the outright, but I thought the day well and truly belonged to Tom.
“What he produced yesterday is what we’re all copping in the nets and hopefully seven wickets across the day makes him keen to back up next week.”
Unavailable for the first month of the season due to work commitments, Holman stepped in for the first time and delivered far above what many outside Kyabram may have expected after, in McLay’s words, the squad “twisted his arm” to get out there.
But after an innings that could have rescued its season last week, followed by an equally forceful display with the ball on Saturday, what the future holds for this Kyabram side is unknown.
Of course, there’s the matter of travelling to face the undefeated Central Park-St Brendan’s next week.
“We’re well and truly looking forward to Central Park and we’ve had some good battles with them over the years,” McLay said.
“They’re one of the form sides of the comp, but our best is good enough to knock over any team, in my opinion.
“We’ve been well behind the eight-ball when we’re not on our game and we need to be up to the fight over all 160 overs.
“If we do that, I’ll back our boys in every day of the week and I think it’ll be a ripper game regardless.”