Numurkah Leader
Blues lose first game of the season
1 min read

NUMURKAH succumbed to its first loss of the season in its Haisman Shield premiership defence when it hosted Mooroopna on Saturday, going down by 42 runs.

After last Saturday’s washout, all games were reduced to a one day match.

Mooroopna won the toss and batted, starting solidly before Matt Cline struck, dismissing Shoaib Shaikh for 12, with a great catch from Kody Jackson at square leg.

Shaun Downie, with his first ball of the game, captured the wicket of Brodie McDonald, and followed with another wicket in his third over to have Mooroopna at 3/55.

After Downie combined with Liam Gledhill to force a run out, Mooroopna responded with some hard hitting before Gledhill claimed his first wicket with a great catch by Dylan Grandell at mid off, to have Mooroopna at 5/98.

The score ticked along to 128 before Mitch Grandell struck with his first wicket, then followed up with Downie for two more wickets each.

Mooroopna lost 4/9, to be bowled out for a reachable total of 153.

Shaun Downie was the best of the bowlers, finishing with 4/17 off 6.5 overs, Mitch Grandell took 3/38 off eight overs, Matt Cline 1/27 off nine, and Liam Gledhill 1/25 off five overs.

The Blues’ innings got off to a rough start, losing Dylan Grandell and Will Arnel in consecutive balls in the very first over, to English import Henry Barrow.

Shaun Downie and Josh Smith consolidated to move the score to 25, before Downie was dismissed for 14.

Jahlan Lau followed soon after, and when Josh Smith departed for eight, the Blues were in trouble at 5/33, all five wickets to Barrow.

Liam Gledhill and Michael Eckard combined well to put on 40 runs before Gledhill was caught for 21.

When Kody Jackson was dismissed for 13, the Blues were reeling at 7/87.

With the score on 97, Michael Eckard departed for a solid 29, and the Blues were bowled out for 111.

Numurkah has the bye the next two weeks for round six.