There’s one word to describe Matt Welsh’s bowling spell against Upper Beaconsfield on Saturday: unplayable.
The superstar took ridiculous numbers of 7/5 in the first innings to push Cardinia well in sight of an outright victory over the Maroons.
Welsh’s line and length was exceptional as six of his seven wickets were either LBW or bowled.
His bowling earned him the highest of praise from his coach Jacobus Hynes.
“He’s actually an animal, he’s the best cricketer I’ve seen in my whole life,” Hynes said.
“It’s so funny, the first ball he bowled went for four, so after that he took 7/1, which is crazy.
“His change up balls are just amazing.
“You could just see in the batters’ eyes that they had no idea what was coming out and we knew that he could expose their lower order bats pretty quickly, and that’s exactly what he did.
“It was amazing to watch and I’m so proud of him because he’s a great guy as well.”
At Gunton Oval, Welsh’s unbelievable spell aided the Bulls in bowling out the visitors for 66 in the first innings after 36 overs.
The hosts quickly batted out the score, reaching 5/78 with Morteza Ali (35) top scoring, before they declared and sent Upper Beaconsfield back in.
To end the first day’s play, Cardinia bowled 14 overs and Lachie Volpe broke through to claim two poles before stumps, leaving the Maroons at 2/19 overnight.
“We were all on the same page in what we wanted to do on the weekend,” Hynes said.
“It was good to know that we rolled them pretty cheaply which was good so we knew that we could make the runs within the day and hopefully have another crack at them, which is what we did.
“We had them six down at tea and we had a chat, we were all on the same page and we didn’t want to let them get any more runs than what they had.
“We all were backing each other in.
“I think we were all just together as one on the day and in the field.
“A lot of our bowlers got wickets which was good.
“We also had an injury and I was happy with how Josh Grogan responded to just being put on the spot, he ended up being awesome for us, he was putting it on a five cent piece all day long.”
Cardinia is hunting the double points from an outright result on day two, needing to bowl out Upper Beaconsfield to get started on the chase.
