In the second round of competition, Northerners’ Sam Dawes and Scott Thorn chased down Euroa’s target of 105 in just seven overs, with both openers scoring at a strike rate well over 200 in its rapid fire run chase.
Euroa wasn’t victim to a killer bowling onslaught either, losing just half of its order during its batting innings, however the Magpies struggled to pick the gaps, and individually, each batsmen struggled to make more than a solid start.
The highest individual score made by a Magpie was 22, a not out score by skipper Connor McCombe, and only McCombe and opener Jacob Gleeson scored at a rate more than a run a ball.
When Dawes and Thorn stepped to the pitch, any hope for Euroa to restrict the scoring quickly evaporated.
Three balls was all it took for the first boundary to be hit, and after a couple overs to get the eye in, Dawes and Thorn were seeing beach balls being bowled their direction.
Dawes would clobber two sixes off the third over before hitting five fours off the next on his way to a quickfire half-century, while Thorn would pick out gaps for singles to rotate the strike back into Dawes’ favour, but also found the boundary rope six times in his score of 33 off 16.
The pair could not continue its hot streak completely in its second instalment, with Dawes striking a rapid 33 against Karramomus while Thorn’s wicket toppled at just one run, but the red and green won by two runs in a tense chase, with Karramomus scoring 11 runs off the final over where they required 14.
Shahidul Chowdhury’s six off the penultimate ball of the innings, and his first ball to face up to, had spectators on the edge of their seats, but Chowdhury was anticlimactically caught and bowled off the final delivery.
Karramomus would finish the round robin day on Saturday with a 1-1 record, enough to qualify for Sunday’s finals, after an eight-wicket win in round one over Euroa.
Tatura would claim the minor premiership for the lower grade tournament with two strong wins against Mooroopna and Old Students, won by 83 runs and four wickets respectively.
Pine Lodge too went undefeated with wins over Numurkah and Katandra.
Katandra and Old Students narrowly missed the top four by percentage with 1-1 records respectively, as the Blues, Eagles, and Magpies all went winless.
