There seemed a palpable agreement between Shepparton Youth Club United and Nagambie, once the dust settled and both teams took a load off beside the John Riordan Oval turf, that this was an evenly poised contest after one half of the season’s first two-dayer.
What more could you ask for?
That’s not to say it looked that way from the outset, though, after Nagambie elected to try and survive the deck on day one.
It was the polar opposite, in fact, with the host drawing first blood on their deck by removing openers Ben Tarran and James Auld — a winter native of Princess Park with the Shepparton Swans — for a combined one run off 39 deliveries.
Luke Nolan proved one hell of a replacement at first drop, but it took the whole day to build the scoreboard up as Sam Nash continued to lead by example around him.
In the crucial post-lunch stages, Nagambie would soon find that two Nolans were better than one as Luke and skipper Mark undertook most of the heavy lifting together.
Both would go on to deservedly raise the bats after compiling a resuscitative partnership, though Mark’s joy was perhaps short-lived after Rehan Bari knocked over his stumps on 51.
Yet again, there was fire where smoke first appeared as the combine set about another flurry to restore a sense of balance, this contest looking mighty even in the day’s latter stages.
Some lower-order steel came from 13-year-old Flynn Bush after coming in at eight, eating up some much-needed time and drastically slowing the host’s momentum with a resolute display of patience.
Guiding the Lakers almost to the final over, Bush received his flowers from Mark Nolan at stumps, but Nash cleaned up what was left of a free-swinging order in a wild final six balls to claim six-for and set the victory target at 202 this week.
THE GAME SO FAR
Shepparton Youth Club United v Nagambie 201 (Luke Nolan 79, Mark Nolan 51, Sam Nash 6-51)
Nolan was pleased overall with the trajectory of the day despite a handful of hiccups during the 80 overs.
“You’d probably take 200 most days, especially after being 4-20,” Nolan said.
“It wasn’t easy to bat out there, but Luke did really well today. We lost two clumps of wickets, but there were two decent partnerships which brought us to a decent score.
“We knew we had to build one after going down early and that got us back on the front foot.
“They bowled really well with a good line and length, but ‘Flynny’ Bush was quite impressive for us.
“He doesn’t seem like he’s that young, but I think he’ll be a very impressive cricketer and he showed good composure today at such a young age.”
Of course, the job is far from done and the home side has demonstrated it can put up numbers offensively in spite of its 0-5 record — pointing to its 200-plus in a thriller with Numurkah.
This is duly acknowleged by the Lakers leader, who looks forward to day two as much as observers would be.
“We’ve been pretty disciplined with our bowling this year, but they’ve got dangerous bats,” Nolan said.
“We’ll have to get them out cheaply, but if that breakthrough comes, that hopefully will hold us in good stead next week.
“I think things would be sitting about par right now. Both teams said they’d take 200 at the start of the day, but it’s evenly balanced and it should make a good contest.”
