Tooradin is well and truly in a golden generation as the Seagulls reached their fourth Casey Cardinia Cricket Association (CCCA) Premier Division grand final in five seasons by comfortably disposing of Clyde in the weekend’s semi-final.
Just about the only thing that didn’t go Tooradin’s way across the two days was the toss, which was won by Cougars skipper Trevor Bauer, who elected to bat.
DAY ONE
Immediately Clyde felt the heat, with Bauer and vice skipper Kane Avard attempting to absorb all pressure while runs were incredibly hard to come by.
But Avard (0) couldn’t get off the mark and was outfoxed by Bailey Lownds when he was caught behind by Ben Parrott in the fourth over.
Ryan Adams (13) wasn’t able to kickstart his power hitting and stumbled, caught shortly after, as Lownds bagged another and the visitors were in a dire situation at 2/19.
But it got worse, with skipper Bauer (13) also removed after braving 78 deliveries and the lethal Clyde top three was all gone with the Cougars at 3/29.
Clyde fell into a free-fall and then lost Shamil Samarasinghe (3) and Yashan Gunasinghage (5) quickly to be 5/36.
Nuwan Kariyawasam (23) and Ramneet Dhindsa (24) provided the top scores in the middle order for the Cougars as they were desperate for any score.
After finding it difficult to get off strike and make runs, eventually the visitors succumbed to the pressure and were knocked over for 109 after 57.2 overs for a run rate of just 1.9 an over.
Bailey Lownds finished with three poles, while Brad Butler and Josh Lownds took two scalps each.
In the remaining part of the day, Tooradin looked to assert its dominance on the contest and put it within reach to ensure an early day two finish.
But Adams broke through to dismiss Cal O’Hare (10) when he snicked off into the gloves of Gunasinghage to be 1/19.
Clyde got its first bit of momentum rolling three balls later when Ankush Rana got an edge of prolific number three Lahiru Jayakody (1) to move the hosts to 2/20.
But the experience and clutch ability of Russell Lehman and Josh Lownds accelerated the scoring and guided the Seagulls through to stumps in a strong position at 2/55.
“At 2/20 it was game on, if they had taken another one or two it was well and truly on,” Tooradin coach Luke Sibley said of day one.
“But our boys just took their time, they put the bad ball away and kept the good ones out.
“Russ wore a few on the body and they just willed their way back on top.
“By the end of day one we were well and truly on our way.
“We did really good work on Saturday and just had to finish it off Sunday.”
DAY TWO
The second day was a simple task for the hosts after alleviating a lot of heat from the Cougars’ attack, the plan was to survive and not take risky shots.
Lehman and Lownds resumed their pursuit, playing great shots and handling all parts of the innings.
They soon approached the required amount, and Lehman hit the winning single off a Rana delivery.
Tooradin reached 2/110 and found its way into a third consecutive CCCA Premier grand final.
“Lucky we had two very capable blokes at the crease and they got the job done,” Sibley said of the batting innings.
“I reckon that’s our best performance with the ball and in the field.
“We were pretty good in the field, we held our catches and we just didn’t really take our foot off the gas the whole time.
“We changed it up a bit, we’d identified in the games we played against them we thought their top order weren’t overly strong against spin.
“So Bailey opened the bowling from one end and did a fantastic job as he has all year.
“Butts (Brad Butler) was super from the other end, he barely bowled a bad ball and neither did Bailey.
“Josh didn’t either when he came on, it was pretty tough out there for the batters.
“It was definitely a plan to the Clyde top order.
“We concentrated on having a razor-sharp focus on not only what we wanted to do this week but also what our end game is and what we’ve worked our asses off all year to try and achieve.”
