THE Gisborne District Cricket Association (GDCA) is through to the Kirton Shield under 17 grand final after going through a tough competition unbeaten.
The league will host Ballarat on Sunday at Kings Park in Seymour with added confidence after accounting for the league in its second game.
The first game for Gisborne was held on Monday against Maryborough, and it was Wallan duo Zac Bell and Joshua Mullavey-Clark who gave the GDCA the impetus with scores of 44 and 42 respectively as it made 206 off 46 overs.
Bell was then in the thick of it with the ball as he held Maryborough’s top order to account, finishing with 4/18 off six overs in a clear best on ground performance.
The GDCA then travelled to Western Oval to take on Ballarat on Tuesday.
This time, it was Mullavey-Clark who did much of the damage with the ball, taking 3/18 off eight overs to help the green team bowl Ballarat out for 136.
Mullavey-Clark and Wallan teammate Chase Fowler were calm and collected in the run chase, despite wickets falling around them.
Mullavey-Clark finished with 27, while Fowler top-scored with 28 as the GDCA chased down the target with 12 overs and three wickets to spare.
The final round-robin game on Thursday was another tricky task at home as the GDCA welcomed Castlemaine to Kings Park.
Again, Bell and Mullavey-Clark performed well, scoring 25 and 34 respectively, while Kilmore’s Darcy McNicholas added 11 and Fowler 15 to help the GDCA make 161.
With the ball, it was Romsey’s Felix Cameron who helped guide the GDCA to the final, taking 4/26 off his 10 overs, while Mullavey-Clark continued his terrific all-round campaign to take 3/21 off 10 overs, bowling Castlemaine out for 115 and winning by 46 runs.
Also participating in the Kirton Shield campaign was Lachlan Peggie for Kilmore, who helped provide late-order runs for the GDCA with seven runs in the final game against Castlemaine.
Highlighting the GDCA’s consistency, Mullavey-Clark was the leading runscorer for the GDCA, seventh overall, with 103 runs, while Bell was second for the league and 12th for the competition.
With the ball, Cameron led the way with eight wickets, while Mullavey-Clark had taken six.
