GORAE-PORTLAND have won the grand final of the Portland District Cricket Association’s Under-16 competition, with a brilliant victory completed over Portland Colts at Alexandra Park on Tuesday night.
A man-of-the-match performance from Ethan Williams, who claimed 6-11 with the ball, helped Go-Ports restrict Colts to 7-121 on the first night of play, on Monday night.
On Tuesday night, Go-Ports showed maturity and class as they chased down the target, finishing only two wickets down in the 28th over of play.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Colts got off to a flying start, with Oscar Barbary and Chad Hollis opening the batting and putting on 75 for the first wicket.
The first innings hit a roadblock when Barbary was dismissed, however.
His innings of 25, including a four, was brought to an end by Williams with the score on 75, the first of his six wickets for the night.
From there, courtesy of Williams, Colts lost 6-41, at the end of which, Hollis was dismissed for an excellent 54, including five fours.
Williams’ man of the match bowling performance was 10 overs, 3 maidens and 6 wickets for 11 runs, having started the match as Go-Ports’ wicketkeeper.
Colts finished on 7-121 after the 50 overs that were played on Monday night.
Scores of around 120 can be difficult to chase, especially in finals, as they are not quite low enough that the batting side can be overly defensive about their approach, and not quite high enough to require an aggressive, risky run chase.
Additionally, it is not an unreasonable feat for bowlers to dismiss sides for less, if they are bowling well.
This set the game up for an exciting final night on Tuesday, but a composed performance from Go-Ports’ batsmen meant that the game finished sooner than expected.
Openers Kayden Wilson and captain Harvey Reynolds put on a staggering 98 runs for the first wicket, meaning the game was well and truly over, barring any miracles, by that point.
Reynolds was the first to fall, for 38 including a four, but was unexpectedly followed soon afterwards by Wilson.
Wilson made a steady 51, including two fours, and was dismissed by Hollis with Go-Ports’ total on 113.
Their side did not need to worry, however, as Williams and Kyle Parsons were on hand to make the remaining runs.
Hollis and Sam Fidge were Colts’ only wicket-takers, with Fidge claiming the wicket of Reynolds.
Gorae-Portland coach Terry Heafield was glowing in his praise of the players on his team, and says it was a well-deserved victory.
“The boys did a really good job to get over the line, 120 is always a hard score to chase, and Colts played really well on both days,” he said.
“It was good of our boys today to bat well and get through the runs.
“I think we’ve been a really good side all year, and we’ve shown we can improve across the board; everyone has chipped in when they had to.
“There’s a few, maybe three players who have really improved this year, and they are Cooper McCallum, Bailey Place and Jeremy Brabender.
“I think those three have come on and shown what they can do when it needed to be done.”
