A BRILLIANT century cameo from Josh Carmichael was not enough for Merbein South to claim a first win of the season in Sunraysia First Division cricket on Saturday.
Carmichael only arrived in Sunraysia on Saturday afternoon from Adelaide and came in for Aaron Walder for his club’s second Twenty20 match of the day, bludgeoning an unbeaten 121 from 66 balls against Nichols Point to help his side to 4/188 from their 20 overs.
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SANFL football-bound Carmichael was dropped before his 50, but eventually finished with 11 fours and eight sixes for his innings.
Amazingly Carmichael has 274 runs in his past two innings at Nichols Point — following 153 in a one dayer last season — however his side was unable to secure victory on both occasions.
He was well supported on Saturday by opening partner Ilario Cavallo (36 off 31) as the pair put on 107 without loss before Cavallo fell in the 13th over.
Facing a big run chase Nichols Point were able to get starts all the way down the order.
Notably skipper Brad Thomas (42 off 31) and Dan Chapman (24 off 19) put on 66 in the middle order and then Luke Coates (29 off 16) and coach Shaun Mathews put on 45 for the sixth wicket.
But when Coates was spectacularly caught behind off Carmichael by Cavallo on the final ball of the 19th over the hosts were left needing 15 runs to win from six balls.
Youngster Jackson Malycha was given the responsibility of bowling at the death, but it was the much more experienced Mathews who came out on top.
Mathews hit the first ball of the over for four, then he and Dean Fulco ran twos on the next three balls before Mathews dispatched the penultimate ball of the day over mid wicket for six to finish unbeaten on 36 from 17 balls.
Earlier in the day Nichols Point fell 14 runs short of a Mildura Settlers lineup missing both Jason Morrison and Richie Wyld while Merbein South were trounced by nine wickets by a resurgent Coomealla Wentworth.
Coomealla Wentworth jumps to third after back-to-back wins
COOMEALLA Wentworth have continued their breakout season with two solid victories at Wentworth.
A nine-wicket first up win against Merbein South was followed by a 17-run victory over Settlers.
Led by an unbeaten 40 from skipper Justin Freeman and 33 from Bevan Wade the Blues were able to muster 6/129 from their 20 overs.
Freeman came in with his side 3/61, and they were quickly 4/61 when Wade departed.
But then Freeman took control, adding 35 with Colby Wade before the latter was run out for nine and then Liam Freeman joined his brother for a 24-run partnership that was broken when the latter was caught behind by Cam Kiel for 15.
Tom Douglas finished on three not out with Freeman.
Liam Freeman got the early breakthrough with Paddy Keogh caught for a duck in the first over of Setts’ innings, before also claiming Setts captain Braidyn Turner for one to leave Settlers 2/18.
Dangerous Setts opener Luke Stanbrook got a start with 22 but his dismissal with the score on 40 by Tanner Begg triggered a mini collapse.
Settlers lost 5/26 — 15 of those runs from Seamus Keogh himself playing solely as a batsman — to be 7/66 and in trouble.
Kiel and Mark Kerr (seven) put on 18 to steady the ship and then Brayden Wood joined Kiel with the pair only able to get the score to 9/112 at the close of the innings.
Kiel was unbeaten on 43, with Wood bowled on the final ball of the day for seven.
Coomealla Wentworth move ahead of Settlers into third on the ladder by percentage.
Both sides sit on 70 points, 20 clear of fifth-placed Nichols Point.
East come out on top over rivals
MILDURA East claimed a comfortable seven-wicket win at home to Mildura West in their opening match of the day.
A terrific display in the field and with the ball restricted West to 83 from 19.5 overs, with coach Davison Mbindi (21 off 22) and skipper Luke Hickey (20 off 29) the only West players to reach double figures.
Zane Hunt took 3/9 from two overs while Jayden Hunt and Muki Sharma claimed two wickets apiece — while all other East bowlers were able to keep things exceptionally tight.
Chasing a low total East were rocked early by veteran West bowler Brandon Dixon.
Vick Singh and Sharma fell for ducks in the first over, leaving East 2/0 which became 3/7 when Brett Higgins was caught by Sam Magnisalis off Dixon for his third wicket.
But that was the last East wicket to fall.
The ultra-experienced Tom Vadlja (41 off 47) and East captain-coach Josh Berry (29 off 40) did not need to press the issue too much, getting their side home after 17 overs.
Dixon finished with 3/11 from his four overs and generally West’s bowlers kept it tight but their side never had enough runs on the board.
Later in the day East fell to Workers Gol Gol while West were held to just 78 in a big loss to top of the ladder Irymple.
