THE opening round of Mount Gambier and District Big Bash Twenty20 cricket saw East Gambier with a solid win over Glencoe on its home ground at Scott Park.
The Bulldogs won the toss and elected to bat first, with runs coming quickly from opening batsmen Darren Whitehorn and Patrick Glynn.
The pair made 41 before Whitehorn was bowled by Geoff Owens for 26.
Dion Stratford took his place at the crease and another solid partnership was the result, as the total reached 95 before Glynn was caught off Owens for 36.
Stratford continued strong and finished with a team-high 37 runs before he was bowled by Tory Weaver.
Before his dismissal Ash Dumigan joined him at the crease for a short stint to score eight runs, with the total on 114 runs when Stratford returned to the bench.
That left Alex Hentschke at the crease and another short partnership was had with Zack Watson.
Watson added five runs before he was bowled by Ethan Bronca, with Hentschke then joined by youngster Connor Little.
Hentschke was caught on 11 runs, while Little was joined by Ben Clark and the two batted out the remaining few overs to finish with eight and 20 runs respectively.
Owens was best with the ball, claiming three scalps for the match from four overs.
The total of 157 was more than enough for the to win in the end, with East knocking the Murphies over in 17 overs for 97 runs.
Craig Hill scored the bulk of his team’s score, just short of a half century on 47 runs.
He was third in the order, with opening batsmen Zack Cocks and Raymondo Stanton dismissed on four and 15 runs respectively.
There was 11 runs on the board when Hill took to the crease alongside Stanton, with the latter caught by Hentschke off Clark with the total on 26.
An unfortunate run saw Weaver bowled by Clark for no score and Jake Dempsey run out for a diamond duck to leave the score at 5/50 eight overs in.
Hill remained strong at the crease and was joined by Clay VonDuve, with the partnership adding 25 runs to the total before the latter was bowled by Nathan Gore on four runs.
Bronca took to the crease and Hill was finally dismissed, caught off Gore.
With the total at 7/91 after 15 overs, the target of 157 appeared far from reach.
Bronca was eventually bowled by Hentshke, while McGrath and Matthew Crowe were both stumped with no runs to their name to leave the total at 97.
With the ball Marks and Gore topped the sheets with three wickets each, while Clark bagged two and Hentshke finished with one.
The Bulldogs will carry confidence from this match into next week’s clash with North Sportsman’s.
