One-man shows meet the painfully placid on Saturday Sundries

Individual and team efforts shone — or, more pointedly, — across the underbelly of Cricket Shepparton last weekend.

News photographer Megan Fisher snapped the D-grade match between Karramomus and Shepparton United.

This week’s edition kicks off with ... an apology. Has the day finally come?

Bailey Simpson, we were wrong

Sundries indeed begins with acknowledgment of an error in our ways.

After day one of Katandra’s Clyde Young Shield meeting with Numurkah, Eagles opener Bailey Simpson was singled out for the lack of, well, singles on his way to a 22-ball duck.

As it would soon turn out, this was but a mere entrée dish.

Providing the sumptuous — and unending — main course on day two was Andrew Nicholls, who came in with his side reeling at 5-25.

It’s one thing to say Nicholls dug in; that’s certainly one available phrase.

Nicholls produced nine runs off a staggering 125 balls — facing more than an entire T20 innings with no boundaries along the way and a strike rate of 7.20.

It’s reasonable to assume that even the great Cheteshwar Pujara — professional cricket’s patron saint of brick walls — would have been begging for something to happen.

As a partial consequence, Katandra finished the day 94 runs adrift at 9-60, averaging less than a run an over.

At least it wasn’t bowled out for much less, though.

This one’s on me

From one extreme to the next, we tune in at the S J Perry Shield encounter between Old Students and Mooroopna.

Students elected to bat, but Jayden Gagliardi really elected to bat.

The opener blitzed Mooroopna’s attack from the outset, finding the boundary no less than 19 times (nine fours, 10 sixes) from his 48 deliveries — just less than 40 per cent of all that came his way.

A century you could have missed by blinking, or perhaps taking cover from the hailstorm of cricket balls engulfing Kialla Park Reserve, was soon on the menu.

In a scene reminiscent of Nelson Muntz throwing and catching his own touchdown pass (“Go long! Aw, hell, I’ll do it myself.”), Gagliardi had put a single-handed winning total on the board, though he didn’t yet know it.

The Students’ bowlers backed up his efforts brilliantly — with Gagliardi proving handy behind the wicket courtesy of three catches — in dismissing the Cats for 91, 135 runs shy of victory, but 16 shy of Gagliardi’s total alone.

Have yourself a day, Jayden.

One in, all in

Speaking of Old Students bowlers, there was plenty to unpack in their Clyde Young Shield encounter against Karramomus.

In fact, rarely do you see an effort quite this collaborative.

By the break on day two, Old Students had assumed quite a commanding position, enforcing a Bloods follow-on with a triple-figure lead.

Naturally, you can afford to experiment a little, right?

Students skipper Gino Saracino decided to take that path during the second Karramomus innings.

It’s not necessarily rare to see everybody but the keeper roll an arm over in the lower grades, but when even the gloveman gets multiple overs, that’s worth the (free) price of entry.

All 11 who suited up for Old Students that day got two or more overs in during the final session; this didn’t necessarily translate to wild success with the Bloods wrapping up at 1-98.

On the plus side, though, Old Students still claimed a straightforward win without needing to pad up a second time.

Hawk eyes off another big day

We head now to the game our feature image gallery captured, as Karramomus hosted Shepparton United in the S J Perry Shield.

One glance at the scorecard quickly indicated this was defined by two duelling knocks, with Kuldeep Achint blasting his way to a quick-fire 74 at a strike rate nearing 200.

For the second straight week, though, the day belonged to Karramomus slugger Andrew Hawker, who took United to the cleaners in the run chase with eight fours and nine sixes.

Striking hard and fast into the 90s, Hawker was eventually undone two runs shy of back-to-back centuries as one of Moin Ali’s two victims for the day.

That said, in better news for the Bloods, Hawker’s efforts weren’t in vain as his side fought on and chased United’s 236 down with four wickets in hand.

Averaging 128.5 in the past fortnight, I’d be looking over my shoulder nervously if I were underperforming in Australia’s T20 tour of New Zealand this week.

A sigh of relief

Someone needs to explain the pitch conditions around this one.

Undera, playing host to Karramomus in the Jim McGregor Shield, likely fancied itself strolling home at a canter.

After all the Bloods had been rolled for 49 — with the Lions’ wides providing the equal-top score for Karramomus at 10.

Not so fast.

The mysterious stranger identified only as Ravi M on PlayHQ had other plans, eviscerating the entire first half of Undera’s suddenly under-siege order in a ferocious five-wicket frenzy.

Sean Baker, in at eight, surely could not have imagined having to bat at all, much less with more than half the runs still required.

Tyler Fleming’s heroic 15 had saved the day, though, as Baker and Glenn Campbell punched through just the second and third boundaries seen all game to secure a staggeringly tight three-wicket victory.

The result also appeared to close the door on hopes of a Central Park-St Brendan’s finals berth in C-grade, disappointing certain Tigers-leaning contributors within The News.