A CAREER-best innings of 82 not out from Mitchell Kemp capped off an ideal start to the SCA campaign for Coomealla Wentworth.
Under lights at George Gordon Oval on Friday night, Kemp and coach Liam Freeman (47 not out) shared an unbeaten 118-run stand to guide the Blues to a nine-wicket victory over Merbein.
The Magpies finished their 40 overs at 9/157 led by Mark East (33) and Josh Stanley (25), with Justin Freeman tearing the top order with 3/14 and Jake Wright nabbing 3/28.
After Matt Job was run out with the score on 40, Kemp and Freeman decided to do it all themselves, with the former’s knock coming from 88 deliveries, including 10 boundaries and three maximums.
“For the first hit of the year it felt pretty good,” Kemp, 22, said.
“I just try to be positive out there and play each ball as it comes — if it’s a good one I’ll defend and and if I think it’s there to be hit I’ll go for it.
“The bowlers did a really good job for us. We’ve still got a bit of work to do on our fielding but the bowlers were awesome. Justin was excellent early on and Jake in the middle overs bowled the best I’ve seen him do for a while.”
The right-handed opener said he enjoyed the experience of playing under lights.
“It was pretty exciting and definitely different being on a Friday,” he said.
“I’ve had a couple hits under lights before, more just for some fun. Once the lights fully took over it was really nice out there.
“You could tell the pitch started playing differently at that time, too, compared to earlier in the day.”
In other games, Mildura Settlers squeaked home to claim a one-wicket win over Nichols Point to open their account.
Shaun Mathews’ 31 was the only score of significance from the Pointers as they were rolled for 103.
Experienced campaigner Brad Purdue took 4/11 with Keegan MacDonald also claiming 3/21.
Setts found themselves staring down the barrel of defeat at 9/87 before an unbeaten final stand between Josh Atkinson (37 not out) and Purdue (10 not out) got them across the line with 16 balls to spare.
Mathews (3/16) and Luke Coates (3/21) were the top wicket takers.
It wouldn’t be the start to a new SCA season without a brilliant innings from Shacaya Thomas and the Gol Gol batsman delivered again on the way to his side winning by eight wickets over Mildura East.
His unbeaten 83, and Sheldon Calarco’s 39 not out, helped the NSW side chase down their target of 157 in the 35th over.
Earlier Tom Vadlja’s 60 led the way for East to score 156 with Luke Hickey (4/22) and Matt Cameron (3/30) among the wickets.
An outstanding 6/13 from Dom Price, including three wickets in four balls, led Irymple to a solid 64-run victory over Mildura West under lights at John Hall Oval.
The Swallows’ held West to 96 as they chased 161, despite decent knocks from Stefan Knudsen (35) and Sean Hawking (30).
Earlier the runs were shared among Irymple batters for 160, led by Daniel Frasca’s 25, with Brandon Dixon (3/27) and English import Charlie Walker (2/34) leading the bowling.
