OUR two U12 teams again parted ways last weekend, with Delatite Gold facing Yarrawonga-Mulwala Bulls in Benalla on Friday, while Delatite Blue hosted Benalla Bushrangers Green on Saturday morning.
Gold continued their toss-winning streak and chose to send the Bulls in to bat.
Some enthusiastic hitting from the Bulls at the top of the order saw them reach 26 before losing their first over off the bowling of Billy Briggs.
This unfortunately proved to be the only wicket taken until late in the innings, with the Bulls’ next six batters reaching their allotted balls and retiring.
Molly O’Meara chipped in with a wicket in the 18th over, while Extras reared its head again and contributed a hefty proportion of the Bulls’ final tally of 113.
Gold’s batting started superbly, the highlight being a six from opener Callum Logan-Williams.
The top three all made double-figures, topped by perennial runscorer Noah Heaysman with 19.
Unfortunately, after the loss of captain Jack Jacob for seven and retirement of Alex Craddock on 10 the runs dried up, and Gold finished on a respectable but still distant 8/74.
Blue won their toss on Saturday morning at College Park, and followed Gold’s example in inviting their opponent to bat first.
Wickets came somewhat easier to the Blue bowlers than their Gold counterparts, lead by Roy Mercieca who took a wicket with the very first ball of the innings.
However after both openers fell, co-captains Samuel Mount and Bentley Parker scored freely, both returning from retirement to finish on 32 and 20 respectively.
Contributions from all batters gave the Bushrangers a healthy total despite losing two additional wickers, and they finished their 20 overs on 4/128.
Although openers Alex Manning and Cody Place were steady early on, after Place was bowled and Manning retired, captain Mercieca could do nothing but watch as partners fell at the other end until he too retired.
Five ducks and two zero-scoring retirements ground the run-chase to a halt, and despite Manning and Mercieca’s return at the end of the innings the damage was done and when Manning finally fell Blue had reached a modest 55 for the loss of seven.
This weekend Blue travel to Benalla on Friday evening to face Bushrangers Blue for their second away game for the season, while Gold make the trek to Wangaratta to face their Magpies White team on Saturday morning.
