Numurkah hands Karramomus first loss of Haisman Shield season

In an almighty bowling display, the Blues had the Bloods on the ropes from the jump.

A scintillating delivery followed five pressure-building dot balls to dismiss Mitchell McGrath for a six-ball duck, before Riley Dawson claimed the next four wickets to have Karramomus staggering at 5-46.

Three runs later and the blood was pooling out of the ladder-leaders, at a score of 7-49.

Zac Groombridge and Lachie Keady were admirable in the lower order to try get some things back on track for Karramomus, but it was impossible to avoid a season-low total.

Mitch Grandell and Darren Butler did the damage to the tail for Numurkah and, before the 30th over could be completed, Karramomus’ carcass was lying on the wicket with a score of 10-92.

Numurkah captain Matthew Cline was rapt with the Blues bowlers’ efforts against the top side.

“Karra have been flying and, coming into the game, we had a bit of a game plan, but we mainly wanted to continue our bowling momentum from last week,” Cline said, referencing the Blues’ efforts to bowl out Pine Lodge for 91.

“Our bowling unit is starting to gel really well and we built a lot of pressure.

“We still had Connor McLeod in the bank too, so it also indicated we have some good bowling depth.”

However, with a side built on winning this season, the Bloods were never going to die until the last drop had fallen out – and if it wasn’t for Raguvaran Aravinthan’s grand stand, Karramomus might’ve been 5-0.

Numurkah’s James Pruden was dismissed for a seven-ball duck, while Butler was removed for 14, but at first drop Aravinthan had already begun forging his unbeaten innings.

Blues teammates would attempt to dig in and remain solid around him, but the next five batters to mark middle at the crease would make no more than 11 runs each, four of which were dismissed in single figures.

But as Numurkah appeared to have a collapse on its cards, Aravinthan remained stoic and, with time on his side, patiently saw out over after over, putting away the occasional bad ball to the rope or picking a gap for singles towards the end of each spell.

A four off the penultimate ball of the 29th over saw the defeat of Karramomus come true and, simultaneously, Aravinthan raised the bat for his 51 not out.

“Ragsy’s innings was class,” Cline said.

“A real mature knock.

“There was a couple of disappointing and costly unforced errors from our side, some boys would want their time again.

“We’d identified that this season there will be some games where we need to grind out an innings, and ‘Ragsy’ did exactly that for us, it was class.”

With Karramomus’ loss, the Bloods relinquish their position in first, falling two spots to third below Central Park-St Brendan’s and Kyabram.

The win places Numurkah in fourth, leading the pack of teams with a 3-2 record ahead of the two-day fixtures.

It will host fellow 3-2 side Nagambie this week, which Cline said would be a “good, but tough” challenge.

“We’ve had some good battles over the years,” he said.

“We know it’s gonna be a good, but tough game and we’re ready to prepare.”