Saturday Sundries | Painfully long stints, identity crises and more in lower grade cricket

After the majority of Cricket Shepparton’s lower grades took a spell during last week’s edition, we celebrated its glorious return with all the belters and blunders you could shake a linseed-oiled stick at.

News photographer Megan Fisher grabbed snaps of the C-grade contest between Mooroopna and Invergordon.

Slow and steady wins the race

There’s taking it slow and then there’s Andrew McMillan.

The Central Park-St Brendan’s B-grade opener was in no hurry to accelerate the run rate in his side’s two-day clash against Shepparton United, spending close to 60 overs at the crease for his 62 runs.

Put into perspective, the Tigers’ vice-captain played it very cool, facing 176 balls, of which 139 were dots.

Striking at a rate of 35.22, McMillan’s statistical worm was more like a slug as he blocked ball after ball to anchor his side’s innings.

Looking comparatively at teammate Michael Dann, who slashed an unbeaten 107, McMillan was one ball shy of doubling the deliveries it took Dann to ton up.

Singh from the same songbook

You’ll have to bear with me on this one.

In the Jim McGregor Shield contest between Murchison and Pine Lodge, eight out of the total 22 players on the park had the name Singh featured somewhere within their PlayHQ profile.

They didn’t half mind having a crack at one another, either.

Lodger Vikramjeet Singh took the wickets of Sandeep Singh and Harpreet Singh Gill, while Murchison’s Gurinderjit Singh met his demise through Jaswinder Singh’s industry.

On the flipside, Hoppers duo Sukhwinder Singh Bhinderb and Barvinder Singh combined to take the wicket of ... yep, you guessed it — Zachary-Clark Lines.

Jason’s chasing a 10

The likeliest candidate to record Cricket Shepparton’s first 10-wicket match of the season is Kyabram B-grade skipper Jason Parsons.

Parsons, a former bat-maker, had Euroa in knots as he left with astonishing figures of 6-3 off eight as the Magpies slumped to 79 all out.

He then grabbed the stick and started clubbing, pounding eight to the fence on the way to a quick-fire 40 as Kyabram declared at 7-179 and sent Euroa in to bat again.

However, if he wants the elusive double-digit haul, he better move quickly.

Euroa is already two down with Parsons snaring neither of the scalps, and opening bowlers Connor McLeod and Nicholas Chambers appear to be in searing form.

Will Parsons sit back and let his quicks do the damage or grab the pill and trot out 20 overs back to back? Find out on Saturday.

Zero to 100

Northerners’ D-graders would have felt 118 was a below-par score, meaning a hot start with the ball was nothing short of what was needed to give themselves half a chance against Shepparton United.

And that’s precisely what they got.

In the blink of an eye United was 3-2, with William Adams and Steven Nash skittled by James Mawson for ducks, while Tirath Ram found Greg Mawson’s hands for one.

You can imagine how the Jets felt and sounded — vocal, vaulting and voracious in the hunt to earn their first win of the season.

Twelve overs later the game was done, but not how Northerners would’ve pictured it.

United’s number four and five Akila Nawarathna and Haqil Abdul came in and swung from the hip, blasting a combined 14 fours and six sixes while tea was still warm in their bellies.

Abdul finished on 63 not-out and Nawarathna 52, the former dealing in boundaries with only seven runs made between the wickets.

Hat-trick hero

When you haven’t played all season, there are two ways to cement your spot in next week’s team — have a blinder or pay the coach.

I’m not sure what Joel Kimberley’s arrangement is with his Numurkah D-grade leader, but the Blues bowler made damn sure he’ll be back this weekend with a stunning hat-trick against Mooroopna.

It was almost enough to win them the game — almost being the key word.

After Numurkah stumped up just 77 runs for the loss of 10 wickets, Kimberley came in at second change and collected 4-16, including three in the space of three balls.

Though Mooroopna held on for a two-wicket win at the death, the visitors’ victory would’ve been a whole lot prettier if not for Kimberley’s heroics.

Nervous 90s

There seems to be a trend in this season’s Whitelock Shield, and it goes like this: runs for fun.

In the 11 games played so far, sides have broken the 200-run barrier on six occasions, but curiously, no player is yet to raise the bat for a century (according to PlayHQ).

In Waaia’s 41-run triumph over Kyabram on Saturday, not one but two players came within a bee’s you-know-what from being the first to carve a ton in the 2023-24 campaign.

First up was Bombers captain Ben Daniel, who chalked up 92 off 87 balls before the 88th delivery angled his pegs.

After him was Kyabram’s Paul Wickham, who went one step further as he carried through to 96 by the time his wicket was taken.

Is there a Whitelock Shield curse? Has a century been made and is hidden by a data input error? Do not hesitate to reach out if you know the answer to either question.