A COMMANDING 114 off 82 balls from star batsman Joel Walsh helped Nyah District continue their unbeaten start to the season with a comprehensive 102-run win over RSL on Saturday.
In his first match for the campaign, Walsh returned in imposing form, smashing the Blues’ bowlers to every corner of Gurnett Oval during his matchwinning innings to help the reigning premiers to an imposing total of 8/247.
The Demons were helped by a 66-run opening partnership by Charlie Boulton (30) and Mitchell Grinham (47), the pair getting the visitors off to a flyer opposed to opening bowlers Brenton Caldwell and Mitch Hinton.
It wasn’t until the injection of Patrick Caldwell into the attack in the 10th over that RSL found some joy, with Caldwell beating the defences of Boulton.
But it mattered little, with Walsh eventually producing his best in his return, with Nyah District captain Ben Shadbolt full of praise for the performance of his gun No.4, along with that of his top order.
“I think any team would be happy to welcome a bloke like ‘Walshy’ into their line-up,” Shadbolt said.
“He’s just a serious talent, there’s not many blokes that can walk in for their first game of the year after one net session and smack 114 off 80-odd balls.
“It was fairly impressive to watch, but so too was our opening partnership with Mitch (Grinham) and Charlie (Boulton).
“(Grinham) is the one who has really come out of his shell over the past couple of weeks, firstly last Saturday making his top score and then his second top score this week.
“It’s been a long time coming from him, we’ve seen his talent and seen that he has the ability to do it, and it’s just taken until now for him to perform consistently, but hopefully we can keep seeing the best of him for the rest of the year.
“All in all, I’m really happy with the way things are going at the moment and the start we’ve had to our season, but you can never get too far ahead of yourself.
“It’s a long year and we’ve seen teams go through the regular season undefeated and lose the Kookaburra Cup and two-day final, in fact it happens more often than you think.
“It’s a long season and it’s a mental battle as well and although it’s a great start, we’re nowhere near done yet.”
Although Nyah District’s batters set up the win, it was their bowlers who finished the job, defending their imposing target by restricting RSL to 7/145 from their 40 overs.
The Demons didn’t have everything all their own way, however, with Ryan Hinton (23) and Paul Munro (67 not out) producing a 57-run opening partnership despite tight bowling from Ben Shadbolt (0/16 off six overs) and Max Thompson (0/23 off six overs).
Hinton’s departure from the bowling of Ben Sheridan opened the door for the visitors, however, and wickets continued to fall at regular intervals for the home side, despite the best efforts of Munro, who carried his bat.
“The boys with the ball did their job, we had a massive score on the board so it was easier to defend, but I thought for 80 per cent of the time we bowled like we were defending 120,” Shadbolt said.
“We had some lapses, but the majority of the time we bowled as we planned at the start of the innings.
“We wanted to approach it like we were defending 130 or 140 and it felt like we did for the most part, yes we had some lapses, but we stuck to our plans overall which was pleasing.”
Charlie Boulton was the pick of the Nyah District bowlers, taking 4/20 off eight overs.
