Cuzz cleans up
…Spins an eight-wicket web against Drumborg-Heywood

22 February 2010

BY DEAN MILLARD

SOUTH Portland continued its dominance of the Breast Cancer Awareness challenge matches against Drumborg-Heywood, bowling out the visiting side in A grade for an embarrassing 78 to win by 81 runs yesterday in the Portland and District Cricket Association.

It was the fourth time the two sides have played each other in the fund raising game in the Portland and District Cricket Association, with South having won all four A grade contests and generally in a convincing fashion.

Off spin bowler Adrian Cossens was the star of the match this time for South, claiming eight wickets in a career best performance to once again highlight the Combine’s lack of ability to play slow bowling.

South Portland won the toss and batted first on Saturday, with openers Adam Thompson and captain Richard Kot making a fair start.

Neither batsman looked like giving his wicket away until Tom Gordon produced a run out to remove Thompson for 24 with the score on 45.

Mark Jones had Paul Drew out in the next over and when he struck again to remove Kot (28) the Combine was back in the contest with South at 3-54.

Jones and Nick Wills continued to apply pressure with the ball as South slipped to 5-72 before a terrific partnership from Cossens and Andrew Payne put South back in a strong position.

The pair added 50 runs for the sixth wicket before Cossens fell for 37 to Stephen Keiller.

Payne went on to make 37 as well before he became Jones’ fourth victim, with Jones going on to clean up the tail to have South all out for 159 in the 52nd over.

Jones finished with the impressive figures of 6-55 from 18.4 overs, with Wills picking up 2-35 from 15.

With 20 overs to bowl still on the opening day an opportunity was there for the Combine to knock off a sizable chunk of the score, but the visiting side made the fatal mistake of going into its shell and paid the price.

With South opening the bowling with Swing bowler Adrian Pfeiffer and usual slow change bowler Troy Warburton the Combine started off scoring slowly and it was not long before Pfeiffer had Kye Bunworth caught behind for two.

The scoring continued at a tick under two an over until South introduced the spin of Cossens.

The move took just two deliveries to pay off, with Cossens removing Jason Hodges (10) in the 14th over.

Cossens would go on to take consecutive wickets in his third over as the Combine slumped to 4-28 at stumps on the first day, with the Combine’s plan of holding back top order batsmen Nick Wills and Mark Jones having failed.

Not out overnight batsman Michael Bell (junior) lasted four overs yesterday before he too fell to Cossens, while Jones lasted just one delivery before he hit a return catch to Cossens.

Wills and Keiller each added just one run and Charlie Woodford was run out after not responding to a call quickly enough as the Combine performed what is becoming a typical crumbling performance to be 9-41 after 30 overs.

At that stage Cossens had 7-7 off eight overs.

Rowan Hauschild, who had also been not out overnight, and last man in Taylor Vaughan finally showed their more experienced team mates how to defend their wicket with an inspiring and defiant final wicket stand.

Hauschild batted sensibly and conservatively, while Vaughan chanced his luck and went on the attack, striking one four and a long straight six in a 37-run partnership that last 10 overs before Vaughan was caught behind for 18 to be Cossens’ eighth wicket to have the Combine all out for 78 on the 20th over of the day.

Cossens finished with 8-27 off 13.4 overs to confirm his position as man of the match.

With plenty of time left in the day South began its second innings.

Mark Jones struck early with the first two wickets of the day but scores from Drew (19) and Warburton (51) helped push South to 5-100 before stumps were drawn shortly after 5pm.

Jones finished with 2-14 to give him eight wickets for the match.

Kot said he did not know why the clashes against Drumborg-Heywood in the Breast Cancer matches were tending to end up in one-sided results and added that for the occasion it would probably be better to have closer contests.

“There is no rhyme or reason for why these games have been working out like that, we were expecting a really good game, but it ended up becoming a pretty easy win,” Kot said.

“You would want a really close and exciting game given the occasion but it just petered out to a disappointing finish.

“From the other perspective having Cuzzy perform as well as he did with the ball is great for us going into finals knowing we will be playing Drumborg-Heywood in the semi, because that should just put something in the back of their minds.

“We have Warbo who did not have a big day today with the ball and we should have TA (Tony Aitken) back by then as well, so we’re really happy with today’s result in that perspective.”

He said Cossens had bowled himself into form in the side’s loss to Colts last round and the consistent turn and bounce of the wicket had suited his style of bowling.

Kot added it was good to see the final wicket pairing for the Combine put up a good fight at the end and suggested perhaps the top order could learn a little from them.

“Young Rowan batted really well at the end and protected his wicket and probably gave an example to their top order about application, and young Vaughany hit out and got away with it, so good on him.”

Figures on the amount raised for the Breast Cancer Foundation from the A grade and B grade matches was not available at the time of going to print.