ON an afternoon when bat dominated ball, two of the SHDCA’s premier opening batsmen filled their boots by scoring centuries.
RSL’s Ryan Hinton and Beverford Tavern Demons’ Charlie Boulton both led from the top of the order, producing match-winning knocks in Saturday’s opening two rounds of the McDonald’s T20 competition.
Hinton obliterated the Pizza Kitchen Tigers bowling attack, blasting 11 boundaries and seven sixes on his way to an unbeaten 109 from just 44 balls.
His knock helped the Blues chase down 178 with 19 balls to spare, despite breaking his bat early in the innings.
The change in equipment clearly didn’t hamper him.
Captain and opening partner Ben Hallam said he had “the best seat in the house” for Hinton’s ensuing onslaught.
“From the first ball he faced he was smacking them,” Hallam said.
“Everyone knows how good he is as a batsman, but every shot he played was a proper cricket shot, as it always is.
“I think he’s the best batter in the league, every year you think he’s going to drop away, but he just keeps getting better and better.
“It’s honestly a privilege that I get to go out there and sit at the other end every week and watch him do his thing.
“To score at that rate and not slog one ball was seriously impressive. Every week he just plays textbook cricket shots, he knows what he’s good at and he backs himself in.”
Equally impressive was the performance of Boulton, who brought up his maiden A Grade century with a single off the last ball of the Demons’ innings against Stihl Shop Roodogs.
Needing 11 runs from the final over to bring up triple figures, Boulton found the boundary from two of the first four balls off opening bowler Jordan King’s final over.
After two runs from the penultimate ball, Boulton was able to find the single he needed off the last.
It was due reward for the talented opening batsman, who has had a career-best start to his season, according to Demons captain Ben Shadbolt.
“He’s looking really at home with the bat, he’s playing his shots and has so far looked really comfortable this season,” Shadbolt said.
“He’s still only 18, so there’s plenty of upside and he’s fast becoming a really exciting prospect for our team.
“(Saturday’s innings) was seriously impressive, he went hard from ball one and didn’t hesitate, he just played his shots and played his natural game.
“Nothing changes for him with the T20s in the way he bats, because he is a naturally aggressive batsman, but it was a seriously impressive knock.”
