Saturday Sundries | Atkins’ assault, terrific tail-ends and more in Cricket Shepparton’s lower grades

Round 12 was a cracker by all means, with hip fire hitting, tail-end heroics and more skittles than a supermarket sweets aisle featured in this bumper edition.

News photographer Rechelle Zammit was behind the lens for the D-grade contest between Old Students and Numurkah.

Block or boundary

Damien Atkins must think running between the wickets is overrated — and he may be on to something.

On Saturday, the Waaia B-grade opener went bang from ball one, dealing in boundaries as he set about chasing down a respectable 190 posted by Katandra.

For the most part, it worked a charm.

Atkins, alongside opening partner Mark Meyland, had Waaia practically inside the winner’s suite at 0-89.

Fast forward a few overs later and Atkins finally took leave at 6-153 in the 24th over, having mashed 20 — yes, 20 — fours and two sixes off 70 balls for a magnificent 105.

What’s even more remarkable than Atkins’ bludgeoning act was Waaia’s capitulation, losing 4-28 in eight overs to cede victory straight into the Eagles’ hands.

Katandra’s Brady Black deserves a special mention for his 5-48.

Telling tails

Ashton Agar, Tino Best, Jaswinder Singh.

Though the latter’s name is unlikely to be known outside of Pine Lodge’s circle, some cricket savants will catch the drift of what we’re on about here.

Agar and Best are known for their astounding knocks batting at 11, and in the Lodgers’ C-grade defeat against Northerners, Singh made a case for his name being thrust into the esteemed tail-end coterie.

Singh, in at 10, walked out to the middle at 8-90 and pushed Pine Lodge out of the red zone with some savvy hitting.

By the time he departed, the Lodgers had reached 182 with Singh clubbing 54 off 23 balls — six maximums and three boundaries if you don’t mind.

However, another Singh went one further.

Karramomus’ Inderbirpal Singh came in at the death against Invergordon, hacking and slashing the Bloods to a massive 8-250.

His 56 not out is the highest score for a number 11 batter across any of Cricket Shepparton’s grades in 2023-24, also proving one thing in the process.

There’s power in the Singh name.

Family feud

There may have been a bit of light ribbing among the Ewart family after Saturday.

No less than five Ewarts featured in Murchison’s nine-wicket loss to Nagambie in the Whitelock Shield — and it’s safe to say the older family members took bragging rights.

Youngsters Maxwell and Walter were unfortunate to depart without scoring, while older heads Hayden and Jacob made 23 and 12 respectively.

Teenager Esther made two not out and was the last Hopper standing as Murchison was bowled out for 68, with Nagambie’s Ryan and Sandy Ezard jagging a collective five wickets.

Walter’s day was dampened further as his sole over was tonked for 23 runs, with the Lakers strolling to the win in exactly eight overs.

After Saturday, the junior Ewarts might be chasing their more experienced family members for tips.

T20 or one-dayer?

A number of shellackings punctuated the weekend’s white ball action, but few were more emphatic than Tatura’s D-grade pantsing of Northerners.

The Jets lost the toss and were sent in to bat — their first mistake.

From there, Tatura had all the power and whittled away at Northerners’ order with the pace attack of Tyson Webb (1-13) and James Collett (2-17) setting the tone before spinner Lachlan Thurston was let loose.

The loopy leggy razed the Jets’ lower order as they lost 6-2 in less than five overs, with Thurston claiming five wickets, including the scalp of former Tatura D-grade captain Lee Simpson, to rub further salt into the wound.

On the chase — if you can call it that — Tatura whipped through the required runs in less than 20 overs for a nine-wicket win.