By Jonty Ralphsmith
Upper Beaconsfield leg-spinner Scott Pitcher was full of praise for Andrew McDonald after the Maroons premiership in the Casey Cardinia Cricket Association (CCCA) District grand final on the weekend.
McDonald took seven wickets in a herculean bowling performance which saw him bowl 37 overs on the bounce, using his height to dry up the scoring.
Batters also struggled with the ball spinning different ways up either end as Pitcher and McDonald formed a lethal combination for much of the day, with the bowling partnership changing the momentum.
“He was really patient with the way he bowled,” Pitcher said.
“He didn’t get sucked in to bowling at the batter – he bowled to our plans which worked and he just toiled away on the same line and length.
“That was the plan and it’s what we executed.
“We just had to work in a partnership and try and stop the flow of runs when the batters first came together.
“We found they didn’t really like the slower bowling so we wanted to keep it as tight as possible and they got stuck in a hole a little bit and we took advantage of that.
“I was lucky enough to play a role at the other end, bowling 20-odd overs, and we really shut them down either side of tea and it fell in our hands a little the next day.”
McDonald’s performance follows a five-wicket haul in last season’s District Division grand final.
Pitcher was full of praise for the Maroons’ supporter-base who were vocal on the sidelines which played a role on Sunday as Will Haines dug deep, scoring an unbeaten 73 to guide his team home.
The proactive mindset of the visiting batters played a role in the outcome, with Haines the poster-boy of that, scoring just four boundaries but still scoring at a reasonable strike rate.
“He just rotated the strike a lot,” Pitcher said of Haines.
“Him and Taylor Joyce put on an important partnership and kept the momentum going at one stage.
“We made sure we weren’t getting stuck or bogged down.
“They’re allowed to bowl good overs but we have to turn the strike over which is what Will did really well.
“Every guy who came in supported him.
“It was a great batting performance and captain’s knock.”
