Jack attack does the trick

By Jarrod Potter
JACK Jessiman fronted up for Berwick on Saturday expecting to contribute mostly with the bat, but little did he know he’d be the crucial bowler for Berwick.
Jessiman, 14, kicked off the season with five wickets for two runs off 2.5 overs against Cranbourne in under-15 (1), including a hat-trick.
Jessiman was brought on as the eighth bowler for Berwick, which was searching for Cranbourne wickets at 3/50. Jessiman took the first two wickets of his hat-trick bowling leg-spin in his first over.
“First ball slid past the left hander’s outside edge,” Jessiman said, describing the over he took two wickets in. There were a couple more the same; then he tried to smash the fifth ball and hit it to gully. On the sixth ball, he chopped on.”
There was an anxious wait for Jessiman as he watched an over bowled from the other end, and took a light ribbing from his captain.
“I was pretty nervous,” Jessiman said. “Cause my captain was joking around with me that he was going to drag me before the hat-trick over, but I was just hoping I’d land the ball.”
Jessiman did get the ball to land, wrapping the Cranbourne batsman on the pads and appealing for the LBW. “There was a break in the overs, so the next ball of the next over, the ball hit him on the pads and he was out LBW,” Jessiman said. “I was pretty pumped. My friend claimed that I almost cried, but I don’t think I did. It was pretty good feeling to take the hat-trick though.”
To top off a great day at the bowlers’ end, Jessiman snagged two more wickets to close out the innings, finishing with the amazing figures of 5/2 and have a season bowling average of .40 per wicket.
He didn’t follow on with the bat, making two before being dismissed, but five wickets, including a hat-trick, will make any person happy.