GMC | Beard spearheads Echuca’s throttling of Cooma
On Saturday, Taylor Beard showed Goulburn Murray Cricket’s A-grade coterie the true meaning of a captain’s showing in the two-day format.
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After engineering a half-century and five-wicket haul on day one, Beard baffled the Cooma batters once more at the weekend to walk away with a 10-wicket match to see his side collect 12 points.
It was always going to be an uphill battle for Cooma.
The host lost its final wicket at the start of day two for a first innings defeat and, though Echuca’s opening duo Brendan Moyle and Adam Jones departed for not many, Matt Hinks’ quick-fire 53 powered the Murray Bombers to 3-107 before declaring.
Cue Beard.
Echuca’s jack-of-all-trades ripped through the Two Blues’ bats to have an outright win seemingly sewn up — but thanks to Jacob Kelly, it never arrived.
Cooma’s first drop crafted a stubborn 75 not out to deny Echuca maximum points as the home side held on at the death at 8-155.
Rochester was at its rampaging best as it pillaged Leitchville-Gunbower for a routine, albeit monstrous, victory.
Posting 9-291 with the bat, Rochester was equally dominant with the Kookaburra as it folded a hapless L-G order for 87 runs.
Corey Jacobs got the party started as he removed Liam Keath for a globe and the wickets continued to fall at regular intervals as Sean Williams (2-9) and Kyle Waters (2-1) showed out in force.
Kurt Brereton (40) provided some resistance, but castles fell around him too quickly, too often.
With Sam Colvin exiting thanks to Fraser Cleary — who claimed his third wicket of the day — it was all she wrote for L-G for Rochester go atop the ladder.
At the other end of the spectrum, Echuca South remains the only side without points after being blitzed by Bamawm-Lockington United.
With 115 runs to defend, the Swans got off to a dream start after removing Greg Pearse for a duck, but were unable to sustain the pressure as BLU reached the total for the loss of five wickets.
And over the border, Jack Russell earned man-of-the-match rights as he backed up his knock of 42 on day one with figures of 4-47 to help Moama topple Nondies Cohuna.