After winning the Burns Cup and under 16s rep trophy our Highlands under 18s team competed in The Jeffrey Cup competition last weekend.
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The first match on Saturday, was against Goulburn.
We batted first. After being in trouble early we recovered to post 242 all out.
The highlight being a 131 run partnership between Ravi Wikramanayake (102) and Nicolas Wilson (45).
Defending 242, our opening bowlers Zac de Hosson and Sean Young destroyed Goulburn’s top order to have them 5/1 and then 6/8.
Sean picked up 2/17 and 14 year old Zac grabbed 4/14.
They were eventually out for 115 giving us a comprehensive win.
On Sunday, the first of our T20 games was against ACT at the beautiful Chisholm Oval.
The ACT batted first and made a steady start to be 0/54 after eight overs.
Just as the ACT looked to be ready to launch a major attack on our bowlers, Captain Ravi Wikramanayake came on and picked up three wickets with his spinners.
All the other bowlers chipped in with wickets and ACT could only muster 9/110.
In a very clinical display of batting, our boys reached the winning total in the 17th over.
Ravi again starred with 50 not out, with great support from Ryan Emmerick (24) and Ben Tucker (21).
This was a very pleasing win as the ACT team was far more experienced than our young team.
We were now in the final due to play South Coast, an association with more than double the players we have.
After losing the toss we bowled first.
Early on, we didn’t bowl or catch particularly well, but our change bowlers did a great job of taking regular wickets to keep the South Coast score in check.
Ravi Wikramanayake, Will Angel and Mason King each took 2 wickets and bowled beautifully.
Combined with 2 great stumpings from James Morton and 2 amazing run outs by Ravi, we managed to dismiss South Coast for 108 runs.
We began the run chase with the plan to play proper cricket shots and get the job done.
Panic set in early when our batting saviour from the previous matches, Ravi, was dismissed for just four runs.
From there our other opener, Ryan Emmerick, played beautifully while watching a procession of wickets fall at the opposite end.
With four overs remaining, we needed 32 runs with just four tail enders left to support Ryan.
Some superb hitting from Ryan saw us require two runs from the final two balls.
The South Coast Captain then bowled a great yorker which Ryan managed to dig out but not score from.
So two runs from the last ball was what was needed.
Some might expect a batsman might clip one through the leg side, or dab it to 3rd man to try and get the two runs.
But, to cap off a remarkable match and weekend, Ryan belted the ball for six over mid-wicket and the team celebrated.
He finished with a brilliant 67 not out – our only player to reach double figures.
This was Highlands first ever victory in this competition.
The average age of the team is only 16 in an under 18s competition.
It was an outstanding effort by everyone.
- Richard Mcharg