Old Students compound Euroa’s woes with routine Haisman Shield run chase

By Liam Nash

Nov 17, 2024

Old Students' Luke McPhillamy cracked an important half-century as his side chased down Euroa’s total in fine fashion. Photo by Megan Fisher

“Two-day is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you”.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

A slightly misquoted Oasis lyric captures the essence of Euroa’s struggle and Old Students’ delight in the current state of affairs under Cricket Shepparton’s Haisman Shield umbrella.

Busting out the red ball for the first foray of two-day cricket in round six, Euroa was handed the latest in a horrid half-dozen losses, while Students continued their crusade up the ladder with a relatively routine run chase.

The Magpies took first strike on day one and posted 144, then making a small dent in Students’ armour to have the hosts on 2-47 at stumps.

However, the second act belonged to the Old Students’ middle order.

Felix Odell (26 not out) and Sam O’Brien (14 not out) began day two with 98 runs to make for the win, but the start couldn’t have gone much worse for both.

Odell only added two more runs to his tally before being removed by Darby Wilson (4-55) in the second over of play and Wilson came back six overs later to clean up O’Brien for 20.

At 4-62, Students needed anchors.

So, along came Luke McPhillamy and Ed Pike to ground their feet.

Pike scored freely, while McPhillamy soaked up the pressure and the former’s hitting flow propelled the hosts 90 per cent of the way to victory.

He eventually holed out on 30 off 47 balls, but at 5-120, Students simply needed to hold their nerve, steady up and waltz over the line.

That did not happen.

A 3-14 mini-collapse had hearts in mouths at Kialla Park, but McPhillamy was all steel and guile as he carried on his chase at a careful crawl, each run chiselling away at Euroa’s resolve.

THE GAME

Euroa 144 (Ryan Hill 36, Ed Pike 4-63) & 5-109 (Vaughan Kirk 58, Ben O’Brien 2-17) lt Old Students 180 (Luke McPhillamy 64, Darby Wilson 4-55)

STAR PLAYER

Ed Pike (Old Students): Pike’s best bowling performance — and second-best effort with the bat — was pivotal in helping kick-start Old Students’ two-day campaign. The young import is only growing in confidence with each passing week.

Students took first innings points with three wickets in the bag and rolled on in search of an outright win, bowled out for 180 — 64 of those runs belonging to McPhillamy — before sending the Magpies back into bat.

Euroa’s second crack with the willow fared much smoother than its day one effort, reaching 5-109 at the end of play to deny Students maximum points while also consigning the Magpies to another defeat.

Vaughan Kirk’s knock of 58 deserved praise, cooling the visitors down after the loss of two early wickets.

Euroa’s task doesn’t get any easier with Nagambie its next opponent, while Old Students can climb a few more ladder rungs by downing Pine Lodge, their upcoming two-day assignment.