Thankfully for Numurkah, that’s exactly what Gino Saracino’s Blues were able to do facing reigning premier and second placed Cricket Shepparton Haisman Shield side Kyabram during the weekend’s first outing of a two-dayer.
The Redbacks had won seven games on the bounce before Christmas and were ready to sink their teeth into victim number eight, but with Kyabram missing 600-run talisman bat Kyle Mueller, Numurkah was wise to grab the ball after winning the toss.
And boy did those Blues bowl.
Matt Cline removed Billy McLay in the first over, snared Paul Parsons (19) in the ninth, and Riley Dawson arrived to make the Redbacks sweat further when Jackson McLay departed for four.
Cade Mueller made inroads, but teenage debutant Kyren Dawson stopped him short on 27, also claiming Ethan Hart’s scalp to mark a cracking first outing in A-grade.
Kyabram seemed ripe for the taking with a below par score on the cards, but a one man screening of the late show — featuring Charlie McLay — changed the game’s forecast.
McLay whacked 46 at nine to bump the Redbacks’ score to 171, with Cline (3-21) and Raguvaran Aravinthan (3-14) sizzling during the first innings to leave their coach Saracino content with the first action of 2025.
“From our perspective, we’ve got a pretty hard draw after Christmas playing one, two and three, so it was a good opportunity yesterday to see where we are at,” he said.
“The confidence never wavered, it’s just other teams have batted well against us and we haven’t fielded or bowled well.
“Yesterday we bowled reasonably well and we fielded really well and that resulted in keeping Ky to 170.
“If it wasn’t for Charlie McLay down the order, we probably could’ve kept them under 150, so it was a pretty good effort.”
Openers Dylan Grandell and James Du Toit padded up for Numurkah and both lost their wicket fairly early, but Aravinthan (25 not out) and Ben Beaumont (10 not out) are well poised as the Blues sit at 2-56 after 29 overs.
The job isn’t done yet, though.
Collecting maximum points on day two would do wonders for Numurkah’s finals hopes and Saracino knows it.
“As I said, the boys are not short on confidence — the belief has never wavered, it’s just more that opposition sides have gotten hold of us for an hour and that changes the game,” he said.
“Especially against the really good sides; Katandra proved that against us before Christmas and Tat did the same.
“This is a good opportunity against another good side around us and, as we know, seven doesn’t go into six.
“We’ve got to win these games to cement our spot in the six and that’s the most important thing and I think we showed on day one we were able to do that.”
Lastly, Saracino reserved niceties for debutant Dawson as well as Aravinthan for their efforts against a high-flying Kyabram side.
“On debut, he (Dawson) wasn’t overawed at all and he was quite dangerous, so that’s a really good starting point for him,” he said.
“Then ‘Rags’ cleaned up the last three, but with the bat, he’s showing real signs of maturity and as a second year as an international, he’s nearly at 400 runs and showing his class.
“We’d love him to be there next week and really push for the result we’ve been craving for.”
THE GAME
Kyabram 171 (Charlie McLay 46, Cade Mueller 27, Raguvaran Aravinthan 3-14) leads Numurkah 2-56 (Raguvaran Aravinthan 25*, Ben Beaumont 10*, Charlie McLay 1-5)
