Mick Cattanach, The Riverine Grazier
Hay Senior cricket team had its first defence of the Creet Cup on Sunday against arch rivals Griffith. After holding the cup for the entire 2023/24 season, Hay was determined to keep homeground supremacy and hold the Cup in the first challenge.
Winning the toss, Hay skipper Simon Bunyan, chose to bat on a pitch that was going to be challenging for the batters after recent rain.
Openers Jensen Hargreaves and Liam Whitbourne weathered the early storm, seeing Hay through to over 14 without loss and the score on 24.
However, Hay lost both openers after doing the hard work in successive overs before the drinks break.
Worse was to follow when Simon Bunyan pulled his first ball straight to midwicket to be out caught, leaving Hay at a precarious three for 30.
However, this brought Rupert Lilburne to the crease with Dean Aylett.
The pair put on the most important partnership of the match.
Batting cautiously initially, they pushed for singles before moving to a more aggressive stance. Constantly turning the strike over, the pair put on 66 runs.
In over 33, Dean lost his wicket, attempting to force the score and departed for a well-made 28. Rupert was then joined by brother Digby, maintaining momentum, hitting a number of towering sixes and driving the Hay total above 100.
Rupert eventually lost his wicket caught at long on one run short of a half century, a crucial innings. Digby following soon after for a hard hitting 25.
However, Hay’s scoring wasn’t finished.
A 20-run ninth wicket partnership between Tom McGufficke and Mick Harrington helped the total to a very competitive 165.
Tom then lost his wicket caught in the deep, on the second last ball of the innings.
Importantly, Hay had batted its full 45 overs, and with a slow outfield and a strong bowling attack was entitled to feel confident at the break in innings.
This was only enhanced in the second over when Digby Lilburne removed two Griffith batsman to leave their run chase in trouble, with only one run on the board.
A partnership then developed as Griffith moved the score onto 34, but Rupert Lilburne’s persistence over a long opening spell paid off as eventually he clean bowled the opening bat in over 11.
From this point Hay tightened up scoring, with Simon Bunyan and Dean Aylett squeezing the Griffith batting with tight bowling.
Wickets started to follow, with Dean getting two LBWs and Simon clean bowling the dangerous Ollie Barter for 27.
Isaac Gardiner joined the attack and his miserly off-spin gave the batters little opportunity to score and eventually he picked up two wickets in an unchanged nine over spell, as Griffith fell to 8 for 84, at the end of over 28.
With Hay right on top and requiring only the two wickets for victory, the Griffith tail wagged for a number of overs.
The Hay attack and fielding remained determined.
In time, Digby returned to the attack got one wicket, and then after another partnership Dean picked up the last wicket in over 41.
Hay had bowled Griffith out for 127 in over 41, to run out victors by 38 runs in a tough contest.
Hay was the dominant team for the most of the match, with contributors across the team.
Hay retains the Creet Cup, and will now await further challenges over the next few months.
Hay 165 all out (R Lilburne 49, D Aylett 28, D Lilburne 25, T McGufficke 19, J Hargreaves 14, L Whitbourne 11) defeated Griffith 127 all out (D Lilburne 3/30, I Gardiner 2/21, D Aylett 2/28, S Bunyan 1/22, R Lilburne 1/26).
Meanwhile in the weekly competition, the recent wet weather moved senior cricket to the synthetic pitches for T20 gamers on the weekend.
The Crusaders beat the Titans convincingly on Friday night.
Batting first, Crusaders had a number of contributions as they scored a massive 190 runs.
Simon Bunyan reached a top score of 64 before retiring.
Tom McGufficke and Zach O’Neil both scored a couple of hard-hitting 40s.
For the Titans, both Matt Smith and Bishou bowled well picking up a couple of wickets.
In reply the Titans never got going.
Tom McGufficke had a big game as he took the new ball and picked up three wickets early to leave the Titans three for 13.
Praveen Gaddam, Pintoo Goswami and Matt Smith all had some success with the bat but ultimately the Crusaders’ attack was too strong as they bowled the Titans out of 97. South Hay Crusaders 5/190 (S Bunyan 64 retired, T McGufficke 48, Z O’Neil 43 not out, Bishou 2/28, M Smith 2/32) defeated the Hay Titans 97 all out (M Smith 29, T McGufficke 3/20, S Bunyan 2/22, C Mcginty 2/30).
In the other game, played in stormy wild conditions on Saturday, the South Hay Colts inflicted the first loss of the season on premiership favourites the Riverina Rattlers.
Hay Senior cricket report
Batting first Colts struggled against the tight bowling of the Rattlers led by Liam Whitbourne, Bill Auldist and Dean Aylett, finding themselves 5/47 in over 13.
However, Rupert Lilburne who had opened and was still at the crease, found an ally in Will Simpson. The pair put on a 63-run partnership dominated by Rupert as he made 78, to get the Colts total to 121 at the close.
In reply, the Rattlers lost skipper Dean, well caught by Hilton Hargreaves, off the bowling of Josh Gardiner in the second over.
This brought Jason Aylett and Liam Whitbourne together with the pair batted well, getting to 41 in over eight before Ben Arandt got Liam.
Isaac Gardiner then joined the attack and ripped the middle order out of the Rattlers, picking up four wickets for only 14 runs off his overs.
Jason continued to keep the Rattlers in contention with some smart batting.
When he fell to an excellent catch by Will Simpson the chase was over as the heavens opened up at the end of over 19, with the Rattlers eight down for 95, still requiring 26 runs with one over remaining.
The South Hay Colts declared winners on a run rate basis in a good competitive game of cricket. South Hay Colts 7/121 (R Lilburne 78, D Aylett 2/7, L Whitbourne 2/22, B Phillips 2/26) defeated the Riverina Rattlers 8/95 (J Aylett 33, L Whitbourne 29, I Gardiner 4/14, B Arandt 2/17).
This article appeared in The Riverine Grazier, 11 December 2024.
