BLAIR: Well fellas, we’re back for Let’s Talk Sport and there’s no shortage of things to chat about. Cricket season is getting to the pointy end and we’ve had plenty of tennis and local racing action. We will kick it off with best action, get us started Justin.
BEST ACTION
JUSTIN: My best action comes from Casey South Melbourne, who got a really important win against second-placed Footscray at Casey Fields. It’s Yash Pednekar, who played a beautiful cut shot to score the winning runs and bring up his 50 in the process. He was on 48, they needed one to win and he hit a four for the milestone and winning runs. Also Ash Chandrasinghe bought up 102 with a textbook cover drive in a massive eight-wicket win. So Casey South Melbourne is flying at the moment, in the top four, so it’s going to be an exciting final two rounds of Victorian Premier Cricket.
DAVE: Do you boys do this when you’re watching cricket and there’s a chase on? Say there is 40 runs to win and a bloke is on 82, you sort of count down how many he needs. You don’t want the other bloke to score runs.
BLAIR: Yeah, for sure, it even happens at local level. The other week one of my teammates finished on 90 not out and a teammate made 40 not out, so he cost him the ton (boys laugh).
DAVE: So best action, let’s go to the Cranbourne Harness Racing track on Saturday night. Harness Racing Victoria has put in an extra $50,000 this year to turn the Cranbourne Cup into a Group 1 race. The first edition of the Cranbourne Cup as a Group 1 will go down as the best race ever at Cranbourne. Australia’s best pacer is a horse called Leap to Fame, and the horse that is challenging Leap to Fame is a horse called Kingman. With 100m to go on Saturday night, Kingman is like two or three metres in front of Leap to Fame and it looked like he was going to knock over the champ. The last 100m, if you love horse racing, it’s the best. Leap to Fame, the champion, lifted itself over the line and just got up. The crowd was rocking and it was just incredible. This horse has already won $5 million in prizemoney, but I reckon that last 10 seconds of lifting over the line on Saturday night will be the highlight of Leap to Fame’s overall career. Well done to Cranbourne for the cup. It sent chills down my spine watching that finish. Also, we had a local horse in the race which is trained at Cranbourne called Bulletproof Boy. He had his fifth start in the Cranbourne Cup and finished third behind the two champs. It was a brilliant effort from Scott Ewen and the team down at Cranbourne. Unusual for me to have harness racing as my best action, but well deserved this week.
BLAIR: You couldn’t wish for any more than that. My best action, the DDCA T20 competition wrapped up on the weekend with the semi-finals and grand final on Sunday. Shout out to Hallam Kalora Park who won it, as they prevailed over Narre South. But the semi-final between Narre South and Berwick earlier in the day gets my best action. We had a super over. Before we get into the super over, Narre South was chasing 182 and needed four runs to win off the last over, one wicket in hand. You think they get that done, especially after they hit three singles on the first three balls of the over to tie the score up – the third single being a tight run out call which went against Berwick, as hands went on heads. They probably thought that decision was the nail in the coffin … but they were still in the hunt. Lachlan Brown was bowling his spinners and came into the final over with an exceptional 1/4 off three overs. He bowled two dot balls to leave the equation one run off one ball to win. They tried, but Liam Sheehan was run out at the bowlers end and the game was tied up … super over time. The Lions went on to get the job done, skipper Jeevan Mendis landed two lusty blows for six in the super over and finished with 15 off five balls and the team got 16. Then Deeshan Umagiliyage secured victory for Narre South bowling a tidy over where Berwick only managed 1/4. It was probably Narre South’s grand final as it turned out. Pretty spectacular finish and you don’t often see that.
BUYING AND SELLING STOCKS
BLAIR: With local sport, what stocks are you buying at the moment, and what are you wanting to sell? Dave, kick us off.
DAVE: What I am selling boys, is getting married during cricket season (boys laugh). Steven Dillon from Kooweerup got married on the weekend and a few of their players went to the wedding. Now Kooweerup is in danger of getting beaten by Officer, so I am selling that. Boys, I got married on April 3, and why? Because it was the only free Saturday between footy and cricket back then. That was high on my priority list. My wife said what day do you want to get married? I had a look at the fixtures and said that one. You don’t impact your cricket and footy teams. The rest of it, I am buying. Casey Cardinia Country Week I am buying and I will tell you why, it’s their spin attack which I want stocks in. Charith Keerthisinghe 28 wickets, Ben Marsh 28 wickets, Lachie Volpe 26, the back-up man is Shiran Rathnayake 14 wickets, Jason Williams (13 wickets) from Pakenham, he is an offie and a very experienced Country Week player. There is almost 110 wickets there that those blokes have taken, all of the top wicket takers at Casey Cardinia will be there next week. I reckon Brad Butler, Tyler Evans and Ryan Adams will send down a few overs of pace and then it will be spin all the way. Boys, yesterday I went clothes shopping with my wife, a big mistake, but I am buying stocks in having a pub at a shopping centre. Shopping for me is hard work, but when that pub was there, it was one of the happiest moments of my life. The first sip was magnificent!
JUSTIN: I am selling stock in Pakenham in the Premier Division. They are really in trouble. This is the first season without Chris Smith and it’s really showing. They struggled on the weekend against Devon Meadows, who are bottom, and that marks two rounds in a row where they have struggled against the team on the bottom at the time. Bottom-placed Officer was the last one to get them. They are badly positioned to lose against Devon Meadows, and their season is basically over if they lose this week. You can call me the president of the Ryan Adams Fan Club at this point, I am buying stocks there. I love watching him bat, especially in the Kookaburra Cup final, he was the only person who scored big for Clyde with a 50. He has come back to Clyde this season after playing quite a number of Premier Firsts games at Dandenong last season. He had an injury and then came back to Clyde and people from the club have said he is really enjoying his cricket this year. Playing with his mates and his brother Max has brought out the best in him, he really is an X-Factor for the Cougars. He scored 35 on the weekend against Upper Beaconsfield, which was a healthy contribution to a good score. Last round, they knocked off Cardinia on the road and he would get the 3 votes – 79 runs and 3/26 – he is a power hitter, but also bowls absolute wheels. He is in Country Week for his first season back in the CCCA and I am really looking forward to seeing what he can produce.
DAVE: We will organise Juzzy to sit next to Ryan Adams at the CCCA dinner.
JUSTIN: He doesn’t even know who I am (boys laugh).
DAVE: He will by the end of the night when you are sitting on his lap (more laughter).
JUSTIN: Also shoutout to Clyde, they post the same picture of him as a kid every time that he does well.
BLAIR: I could make another enemy here but I am selling Beaconsfield’s decision to win the toss and bowl first last week in 40 degree heat and concede 326 runs against Dandenong West. They were beaten by 213 runs on first innings result. I can’t talk too much because I never even get to make a decision as skipper, I lose almost every single toss for my side. Apart from that, I am splashing some cash around. I am buying a couple of boys from Hallam Kalora Park. Jawid Khan’s T20 series is the first one, he scored 12, 60, 45, 60 and 95 in the grand final to win man of the match honours – a brilliant campaign from him. His teammate and skipper Jordan Hammond has been superb with the ball, so I will buy his bowling form. He has taken 13 wickets in the last four games he has played, so he is in good touch at the right time of the season. I am also buying Coomoora’s two gun batters, I’d put my house on them, a huge investment. Jarrod Munday and Krishan Alang, they formed a 244-run partnership the other week and have been dominant – they are leading the competition by that far that it isn’t funny. Here are their numbers. Alang, 461 runs at 92.2; 2 x 100s and 2 x 50s. Munday, 448 runs at 74; 1 x 100s and 3 x 50s. Coomoora is second place on the ladder.
JUSTIN: He has two pages of notes for LTS (boys laugh).
BLAIR: Yeah, just trying to fit the number of runs that those two have scored in my little notepad.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN
BLAIR: The Australian Open tennis wrapped up, Novak Djokovic, the dream was there for the Joker to come through and win his 11th Aussie Open title. But Carlos Alcaraz ruined those dreams to win in four sets. The two semi-final matches, what a treat.
DAVE: When I went down to the Ace Classic the other week, it was a lot lower standard than the Australian Open obviously, but I forgot how small a tennis court is. It’s like a boxing match with a tennis racquet in your hand, there is nowhere to hide; you can’t disappear and rely on teammates. Djokovic normally tries to grind players down but he changed his tactics last night because he was worn out from the semi-final. With Alcaraz, he is now on seven majors and he is 22 years old. If he plays until he is 35, he has got another 52 majors he is going to play in, and he is in the prime of his career for probably the next seven years from 22-28. If he wins two per year in his prime, he is up to 21. Jim Courier summed it up perfectly last night, he said no matter what happens here, at 22, he is already a great of our sport. If he broke his leg tomorrow and never played tennis again, he is already one of the giants. He is up there with John McEnroe with seven majors and is still a baby. He could be the GOAT by the time he is finished.
BLAIR: Yeah, he is 22 years old, so a couple of years younger than me and he has won all four slams now. He is fifth in the all-time earnings ever at the age of 22, with $60 million in his pocket, which is remarkable. The old Big 4 are almost done and it will be a Big 2 battle for years to come between him and Jannik Sinner. It will be exciting viewing.
DAVE: Brenton Speed was commentating and I loved his line after the semi-final thriller, ‘The escape from Alcaraz’. That will be one of the great lines in sport.
JUSTIN: I couldn’t believe there are only nine players in men’s history to win all four grand slams, and Alcaraz is now one of them. He only dropped three sets, his mixture of speed and his finesse with those drop shots, Djokovic just couldn’t chase them down. He is just getting started.
DAVE: Shout out to Novak, what a performance.
BLAIR: The Joker has been, and still is a star. He has won 10 Aussie Open titles and needed everything to go right to get 11, and it nearly did. He had the walkover and the retirement, but the semi-final hurt him at the end. Thanks boys, that’s another week in the books and we are looking forward to chatting again next week.
