Dogs down the roos

---

ON a scorching summers day at the Zinc Oval, North took on South with both vying for that 3rd place semi final position.

The match was reduced to a T20 due to the heat and B Grade captain Joel Sheppard continued his toss winning form and elected to bat first.

The vastly experienced Kieran McEvoy and Shayne Staker strode out to the middle and got the team off to a flyer.

The pair found the boundaries regularly and took the singles on offer.

After a solid start, Staker was caught behind by Ashley Christos for 22 off the bowling of Josh Hands. North 1/33.

Back for another hit, Jason Harwood joined McEvoy and the pair continued the swift pace of the innings guiding North to 1/54 off 7 at drinks.

After the break and with the field spread the pair continued to accumulate the ones and twos as well finding and clearing the boundaries putting North in a vtrong position at 1/99 off 14 overs at drinks.

The runs continued to flow as the power surge was taken and McEvoy fast approaching his half century, skied one off the bowling of Matt Gray on 49 with Ashley Christos taking a well judged catch.

Harwood was joined by Scott Rogers and the pair cobbled together some late runs. Harwood finishing with a superb 48 not out off 41 balls and Rogers 3 not out as North amassed a very good score of 2/136 off 20 overs.

With a strong bowling attack, North were confident this would be enough if the bowlers found the right areas consistently.

It would be Kieran McEvoy and debutant Trent Jones to take the new ball with Matt Gray and Ashley Christos opening the innings with the bat.

Jones making an immediate impact as he skittled arguably B grades best batsman in Matt Gray for 0 to have South 1/7.

Christos found some support from Lachlan Erskine, but the North attack continued to stifle the scoring rate as South battled to 2/25 off 7 overs at drinks with plenty of work to be done.

The pair continued to battle hard after the break and looked to up the scoring. Dylan Millsteed came into the attack and got through the defences of Erskine for 11. South 3/40.

Christos was joined by the dangerous Tom Thomas. A sharp bit of work behind the stumps from Rogers had Christos stumped for 30 off the bowling of Sheppard. South sinking further at 4/46.

Thomas was joined by Jai Purdue and the pair looked to try and keep the things moving with the required run rate getting out of hand.

Millsteed grabbed his second wicket when he had Purdue caught for 3. The very next ball, Lucas Christos poked one into the gully region and Harwood like a panther sprung to his right taking an excellent diving catch.

The scene was set, the field in, Josh Hands at the crease, Millsteed with his tail up hunting his first hat trick.

Over 12.6. Hands out! Millsteed bowls full of a length, Hands in a tangle as the ball rebounds off the pads onto the stumps. Wild scenes as Millsteed celebrates his hat trick with his team mates.

The fans in the BL Martin stand go wild, an excellent achievement for the young man. South 7/67.

South scraping to 7/72 off 14 overs at drinks with the required run rate at just under 11 runs per over as Sheppard and Millsteed continued in the power surge with Thomas running down the track on 21 stumped by Rogers to become Sheppard’s 2nd victim. South 8/76.

Jones came back into the attack along with Victory playing a new death bowler role.

Jones kept Rogers on his toes in his final spell with the ball hitting some unusual parts of the pitch. Victory as he often does, picked up the handy wickets of Tom Langford for 1 caught by Rogers and Brijesh Chauhan for 14 caught by Jones to bowl out South for 102 in the 20th over.

Millsteed was the pick of the bowlers with 4/22 off his 4 overs, While Victory 2/4 off 1.5 overs and Sheppard 2/21 off 4 overs offered great support. McEvoy 1/15 off 4 overs and Jones 1/16 off 4 overs also bowled very well.

North B Grade have their final bye next week before another big game against Central at Zinc Oval in which a win would just about secure a semi final position.