The reigning premiers are off the ground.
Cardinia tasted victory for the first time this summer as the Bulls handled business against Officer in round two of the Casey Cardinia Cricket Association (CCCA) Premier Division.
At Rob Porter Reserve, the Bulls won the toss and chose to bat which looked a questionable decision after disaster struck in the first over.
Cooper Pursell claimed two wickets in the opening five balls, removing both Travis and Bradey Welsh for ducks.
The response for Cardinia came through Morteza Ali (32), Matt Welsh (29), Yohan Arumadura (25) and Travis Wheller (39 not out).
After Ali snicked off Adam Reid, the Bulls were 3/39 after 11 overs.
Matt Welsh and Wheller’s stand was nearly a half century before Welsh was caught off the bowling of Ash Smith.
Smith grabbed his second wicket in the 26th over when he dismissed Arumadura at 5/110.
Jacobus Hynes (14), Trishane De Silva (11), Lachlan Volpe (1) and Josh Grogan (13 not out) rounded out the innings and Cardinia recorded 8/186 in the full 40 overs.
Pursell, Smith and Reid all bagged two scalps each for the Bullants to help keep the visitors to a very competitive score.
Nerves were high when Officer went in to bat as De Silva’s opening over was a maiden.
Three balls into the second over Smith snicked off Josh Browne for a duck.
After De Silva produced another maiden, Browne struck again by rattling the stumps of Agamjot Dhindsa (1) and the hosts were suddenly 2/7.
Remaining opener Billy Carlyle and Pursell (11) dug deep and defended before Arumadura dismissed the skipper.
Scoring was incredibly difficult and the dot balls began to pile up before Carlyle (37) was bowled by Volpe.
From there, the Bullants’ bottom order couldn’t add much and they were knocked over for 118, resulting in a 68-run win for the visitors.
“It was good to get that win under the belt and it’s a bit of a sigh of relief,” Cardinia coach Hynes said.
“We were on the back foot early with a couple of average shots but we play a very aggressive style so we live by the sword and die by the sword sometimes.
“We did well to consolidate but we’re probably struggling a little bit to rotate the strike and get a few more singles and pressure the field.
“This is a little adjustment period we’re going through with new leadership just to gauge on what we actually want to do and how we want our players to play.
“The fact that both games we’ve batted out our 40 overs is awesome and we bat right down, so we always back everybody in to finish the job.
“If someone doesn’t perform on the day there’s always going to be someone else that is going to step up.
“It’s positive signs but there’s a bit to work on too.
“It brings us all together and on the same page that we can win games even though we’re not playing at our best.
“There’s probably a bit more motivation, we got our first taste of winning for the season so we just want to keep it rolling and build some more momentum.
“We’re going to keep trusting the process that when we are on, we can hopefully beat every side.”
The bowling performance from the Bulls was deep, tidy and professional.
Five bowlers claimed at least one wicket with Arumadura and Browne grabbing two and Volpe snagging three.
“There was an adjustment period at the start to get the ball in the right areas but we got some early wickets,” Hynes said of his side’s attack.
“Once we got a wicket we kept the momentum up, pushed through the overs and we ended up getting them all out which is the end goal.
“We bowl really deep which is awesome, if we’re struggling to get wickets we always have another option.
“With Lachie Volpe coming into the side, him and Yohy (Arumadura) in between the middle overs is awesome to try and get overs quick and chew up the runs a bit to put the pressure on them to try and play a big shot.”
