Gulls too good

By Gavin Staindl
IF a spectacle is what observers at Tuesday night’s West Gippsland Cricket Association Twenty20 were after then they would have left bitterly disappointed.
But Tooradin coach Dennis Armstrong could not have been happier with the performance of his team that beat Beaconsfield by nine wickets at Perc Allison Reserve.
Only nine wickets fell during the afternoon’s play and only 16 boundaries and two sixes were hit in 37 overs of cricket. And at no stage was the match close, with Tooradin openers Aaron Avery (57) and Tom Hussey (80 not out) putting the game beyond doubt by patiently combining for 131 runs from 16 overs – only nine runs short of Beaconsfield’s total of 140.
But Armstrong in his post-match address to players said it was a “great win” and any aspiring cricketers watching the match would have learned a lot from the two openers.
“It’s not all about hitting boundaries,” Armstrong said to his players. There are runs there if you’re smart about it. They made 140 which is a good score, but we were smart about it and that’s what we have to do to become a really good team.”
The common perception in Twenty20 cricket is players must blast their way through an innings but Hussey and Avery showed a big score is just as achievable by rotating the strike.
For the first five overs the pair averaged six an over and by the halfway stage of the innings the partnership was worth 80 without either of them playing a dangerous stroke.
“We took no risks,” Avery said.
Earlier, Brad Sauer highlighted Tooradin’s emphasis on lively fielding by claiming two run outs, including a direct hit running away from the stumps to remove Luke Sibley.
While for Beaconsfield, Jason Dodd (39 not out) and Sean McDermott (15 not out) impressed after both managed to bat out the remaining seven overs in the face of hostile bowling.