Saturday Sundries | Lower-grade warriors ride the rollercoaster after a month’s worth of action

Saturday Sundries are all the extra highlights from the weekend’s lower grade cricket — from the top run-scorer to the best bowling figures and anything else of interest from across the district’s grounds.

To make sure we don’t miss any classic moments, why not message Shepparton News Sport on social media or email us at sport@sheppnews.com.au.

News photographer Megan Fisher snapped the action of the D-grade clash between Old Students and Mooroopna at Kialla Reserve.

Euroa gun leaves Numurkah in Sham-bles

You may remember Euroa’s Sham Dadallage from such productions as our Saturday Sundries from two rounds ago.

He made his first Sundries appearance for the season with a swashbuckling 63 runs batting at number 10, and obviously having proved his adeptness with the willow, he’s back in the column for his exploits with the ball.

Dadallage ripped through Numurkah’s batting line-up in the Clyde Young Shield clash in round five, collecting 5-16 off a very tidy nine overs.

His performance saw Euroa bundle out the Blues for 113, a total chased with seven wickets in the shed.

However, he wasn’t the only one to raise the ball at the weekend.

Tatura needed a lift with the ball in its D-grade game against Mooroopna, with the Cats humming on the back of a 76-run opening dig.

Solution? Hand the ball to Xavier Dowell.

Dowell dismissed both openers and then ensured Mooroopna didn’t run away at the tail end of their innings, snaring three wickets - all bowled - in a sizzling 39th over.

It kept the Cats to 8-193, a chase Tatura deftly navigated for a three-wicket win.

From rags to riches

All batters have been there; dismissed cheaply after a rapid stint at the crease, usually in single digits.

Well, cricketers everywhere, Sundries has the scoop for you.

The answer to your problems is to simply crack a ton the next week.

After posting a single run off two deliveries the previous round, Northerner’s Lachlan Vassallo increased his contribution more than 100-fold against Invergordon in C-grade, walloping 11 fours and seven maximums off a brisk 94 deliveries for a brilliant 113 runs.

Aided by Brock Austin’s 83 not out, Northerners posted 5-311, and with the ball were laser accurate, conceding just the one extra.

Sam Obersnell was the offender with a solitary no-ball, but with best figures for the day in his side’s first win of the season (3-20), I don’t think his teammates would have minded too much.

Elsewhere, Karramomus’s Jayden Dhosi carried on the theme of Cricket Shepparton’s batters being in a hurry, belting 128 off 89 deliveries in the Bloods’ 80-run win over Pine Lodge.

The leading legends of the lower grades

With a month of the season now in the books, it’s time to look at who’s lighting up the stat sheet.

B-grade’s head honcho with the bat is none other than Northerners’ Stuart Turner with 210 runs at a healthy average of 70, with nine wickets to boot.

But with 14 poles, Numurkah’s Reydan Lacuin, last year’s runner-up in the Clyde Young bowling tally, has picked up where he left off, leading by two.

In the McGregor Shield, the C-grade leading run-scorer is streets ahead with an average of 141.

Undera’s Bayden Bailey has a 118-run buffer on Mark Nolen, two half-centuries and a high score of 131 the reason behind that.

Another Lion sits atop the bowling; Sundries regular Russell Sherriff has 14 wickets at an average of 5.57.

Katandra’s Harpreet Singh Gill (174 runs) and Euroa’s Tim Swift (170) are in a tight race in the D-grade run-scoring, as is Swift’s teammate Jack Wilson (11 wickets) and Old Students’ Ross Hammer (nine) in the bowling.

Northerners’ Scott Thorn (118 runs) and Danush Patel (SYCU) and Sam Obersnell (Northerners) with five wickets lead the E-grade categories.