A FIGHTING stand between Billy McLay and Alec Young has delivered Kyabram its second win in two games to start the new Cricket Shepparton Haisman Shield season.
Kyabram was struggling at 6/66 chasing Karramomus’ 9/141 but McLay and Young came to the rescue with an unbeaten 76-run partnership for the seventh wicket.
With cool heads in a pressure situation after Kyabram had lost four wickets for five runs, McLay finished 35 not out and Young carried his bat for 32 in the fighting stand.
Opener Troy Thomson also contributed a handy 24 in the Kyabram innings.
Young had a top match, picking up 4/24 off nine overs of left-arm off spin to keep the brakes on the visitors' scoring rate.
New ball bowler Lukas Hanslow was the other multiple wicket taker for Kyabram with 2/34 while teenager Connor Hawes claimed his first A grade wicket.
The bonus for Kyabram was achieving the win without star batsmen Paul Newman and skipper Kyle Mueller having any impact.
Kyabram will be looking for a hat-trick of wins this Saturday when it travels to Katandra to tackle last year’s runners-up.
¦ Young Kyabram allrounder Angus McKenzie posted his first century in senior cricket with a commanding 103 to spearhead his team to a big win over Karramomus in the B grade competition.
McKenzie’s dominant innings contained 12 fours and three sixes and with main support from opener Tim Nelson (44) helped Kyabram reach 8/237 off its 45 overs.
Then Kanwai Singh with 4/25, Jason Parsons with 3/4 and Nick Chambers with 2/14 shot down the Karramomus batting list in 38.5 overs for 101 runs to execute a comprehensive win.
¦ In a big day for the club and some of its players, two Kyabram players belted centuries to give the D grade side a flying start to the new season.
Opener Jayden Fitzgerald slammed 11 sixes and 10 fours on his way to 123 retired off 74 balls in 122 minutes.
Gavin Canute finished with a neat 100 not out with 15 fours and two sixes in a 194-run second-wicket stand with Fitzgerald that propelled Kyabram to an impressive 4/286 off its 40 overs in the game at Shepparton’s Vibert Reserve.
In reply Karramomus could muster just 5/133 off its 40 overs, with young Lachlan Turpin taking 2/6 off four overs for the winners.