Hills’ horror innings

By Gavin Staindl
ENDEAVOUR HILLS has been dealt a crushing first innings loss to Preston on day one of the two-dayer at Sydney Pargeter Reserve.
The Hills won the toss and elected to bat but were bowled out for an embarrassing total of 44.
Seventh batter Shane Peake with 16 was the only batter to make more than six runs.
The left-hand right-hand combination of opposing bowlers Brendan Barry (5/27) and Chris McCallum (2/8) ripped through the complete line up in 25 overs before Preston went in to bat and declared 38 overs later for 8/128.
The first innings loss left coach John Hayes hoping the whole ordeal was a bad dream.
“I had hoped to wake up in bed and think it was all a bad dream,” Porter said.
“It is safe to say that it was a terrible day.
“They bowled really well and we had a shocker,” Porter said.
The Preston bowlers made the most of the conditions and were able to comfortably swing the ball through the air and pick out the green patches on the wicket.
“We just couldn’t handle the ball moving around,” Porter said.
In reply the Hills’ bowlers were positive.
Shane Peake took four wickets and Matt Foenander (1/19) had another good performance with the ball but they could not defend the lacklustre score set by their team-mates.
Nevertheless, Porter is not one to take a backward step and is already looking to salvage as much as he can from next week.
“We can’t harp on the bad things; we just need to get cracking next week.
“It is a good opportunity for young Lauchy McIver as night watchman to see some overs. He made 60 a few weeks back in the under-17s so he can bat,” Porter said.
The Hills will be concentrating on initially reaching the required 74 to avoid the outright defeat and then look to bat out for as long as possible.