Sport: Boys Cricket

Sport Coordinator Jud Mullins was about to dash the hopes of the Wang High faithful and forfeit our match against Wodonga Senior. It was already 9 o’clock and only half the team had fronted up to the bus interchange, leaving many scratching their heads and wondering ‘where to from here?’ Thankfully, with the late inclusions of a handful of year 8 and 9 students, we had a squad of 12 to take to the North Wangaratta Rec Reserve for a tantalising fixture against our public-school counterparts from the border region.

In a fitting analogy for the cashless nature of today’s world, no one could find any physical currency to lend for the official coin toss. Captain Emilio Milankos-King instead won the ‘bat toss’ and instantly began rolling his arm over, indicating that he wanted to bowl first under clear skies. He took up position at first slip and threw the new ball to Jim Shepherd, hoping for an early breakthrough. Jim was miserly in his opening spell, emulating Aussie opener Mitch Starc with his whipping left-arm action, giving the Wodonga batters very little to work with in both line and length. Aarnav Kalia bowled a tidy few overs also, unlucky to not snare a wicket. 

Luka Hildebrand struck in the fifth over, with a great in-swinger trapping the Wodonga opener stone cold Leg Before Wicket. Skelly Manning asked questions of the batters, forcing one to ‘chop on’ to his own stumps. A second wicket down and the excitement among the group was building. Bode Crawford was impressing many with his pace, and Jack Ford snagged himself a wicket, caught at mid-on by Cooper Lack. 

Captain Emilio brought himself on to bowl right before the drinks break, channelling the spirit of cult-hero 90’s cricketer Colin ‘Funky’ Miller by switching between bowling pace and spin during the same over. He struck twice in his only over, including a brilliant caught-and-bowled. The boys had taken six wickets and were right on top. 

Year 8 student Andrew Fraser bowled 2 overs of some of the nicest looking left-arm wrist spin I’ve ever seen on the field, netting himself a wicket. Some of his deliveries were nigh unplayable, leaving the opposition batters with little choice other than to hang the bat out there and hope for the best. After the final batter retired hurt, the innings was over and the challenge set: 66 runs required for victory. 

Andrew Fraser and Jim Shepherd opened the batting together. The two left-handers rotated the strike early, getting their eye in. In typical left-hander fashion, both boys were unafraid of playing the hook shot, with many balls ending up near the deep fine-leg boundary. Wodonga even tried to put 3 fielders behind square on the leg-side, which is illegal in competitive cricket. With fewer than 10 runs to get, Jim was caught behind on 13, leaving Andrew and Thomas Fieldew to steer the ship home. We passed their score in the thirteenth over, with Andrew on 30 not-out. 

The final was played against Cathedral College: An obviously well-drilled cricket team who pummelled their way to roughly 240 on a field with incredibly short boundaries. Our boys managed a team score of 52 in reply, with Oscar Benson finishing on 20 not-out. 

The boys conducted themselves in outstanding fashion and should be proud of their efforts. Special thanks to Zelda Yeates for supporting and photographing, and Alex Johnson for substituting in for me.

Morgan Clark

Outdoor & Physical Education Teacher