GOL Gol ace Shacaya Thomas has continued his stellar opening to the Sunraysia Cricket Association’s First Division season, posting his third consecutive score over 70 in his unbeaten side’s win against Irymple on the weekend.
The local Calypso King put on 103 for the first stand with Aidan Calarco (38) before he was the third wicket to fall.
His polished 77 off 83 balls, including nine boundaries, helped set up Gol Gol’s 6/200 off their 40 overs.
In reply, Irymple fell short by 37 runs with Thomas picking up two wickets, as did quick Luke Hickey.
Thomas’ knock at Alcheringa Oval on Saturday came after he posted scores of 83 not out in round 1 and 76 in round 2.
The 34-year-old Jamaican product gave an insight into the secret of his success with the willow post-game.
“The key to consistency is understanding your game and sticking to it,” he said.
“But my secret weapon is having a friend like Greg Arthur, who is always ready to do batting drills with me whenever I call him, even if it’s last minute.”
Gol Gol are now the only unbeaten team in the competition after inflicting Irymple’s first loss of the 2022/23 season.
Both Thomas and captain/coach Adam Thomson are confident their team – beaten in last season’s grand final – has the key ingredients to make a charge deep into the finals.
Wade Hancock (17) made his first appearance for the season after taking a well-earned break from his Sunraysia football commitments with Wentworth, who had a great year before falling in the grand final to Irymple.
His Roos teammate, ruckman Nick Jensen, is expected to start playing cricket with Gol Gol’s top-grade side in the next few weeks.
“Our team looks great every year (but) the big difference this season so far is having more consistency from everyone, especially in our batting department,” said Thomas, who is now working in the aged-care industry.
“Our bowlers will always turn up. It’s our batting that has failed us previously in the big games.
“But we are taking the season one game at a time, improve on what we can and continue to do the things we do well.”
Thomson said he had not set any great expectations on his side yet.
“Obviously the goal is to reach the finals, but it’s always nice to finish in the top two and get a home final,” he said.
Thomson then gave a nod to Alcheringa Oval groundsman Matt Tiley, who, like other curators around the district, did an outstanding job in preparing the wicket and ground on Saturday after the torrential rain earlier in the week.
“Matt does a great job. He prepared the wicket early and put three layers of hessian, a single cover and a full square cover over it, so when we took the covers off Friday morning the wicket was ready to go,” Thomson said.
“The pitch played well. Any time you make 200 in a one-day game, the wicket’s obviously pretty good.”
In other games on Saturday, Mildura East defeated the reigning premiers, Mildura Setters, by seven wickets.
Home side Setts could only muster 8/87 from their 40 overs, before East powered to 3/88 from 25.5 overs.
At John Hall Oval, Coomealla Wentworth toppled Mildura West by five wickets.
West posted 9/136 off their 40 overs, with Bevan Wade (3-15) the chief destroyer for the visitors.
In reply, Coomealla Wentworth hit the winning runs in the 35th over with Luke Cullinan (28) and Liam Freeman (24) leading the way.
The Nichols Point-Merbein game was abandoned due to the state of Nichols Point Reserve following the midweek deluge.
Meanwhile, Red Cliffs Cricket Association fixtures were cancelled at the weekend for the second week in a row due to the wet conditions.
