Bandicoots beaten away from home

The Baw Baw Bandicoots Cricket team travelled to Wandin North on Sunday last, to take on the Yarra Valley Bulldogs in round two of Master Cricket Victoria.
The home team batted first and got off to the proverbial 'flyer.'
After 10 overs the Bulldogs were no wickets for 69 runs and that progressed to 136 without loss by the end of the 20th over - the home team's top four batters accumulated a combined 135 runs off 127 balls.
After the drinks break Mick O'Neill, Brett Carey and Peter Heywood applied the brakes with a combined effort of 5/60 off 17 overs.
Peter Heywood, in his first bowling stint for almost 20 months and after bicep operations, took 3/16 off four excellent overs.
Brett Carey and Mick O'Neill took 1/28 off eight overs and 1/16 off five overs respectively. So, after looking like the Bandicoots would be chasing 280+ at one stage, Yarra Valley finished with 6/222 after 40 overs.
The Baw Baw batters took to the crease with the daunting task of needing more than 5.5 runs per over for every one of 40 overs - a task that ended up being too tough.
While eight batters reached double figures, none took the Bulldogs attack by the scruff of the neck and so the visitors finished at 6/155 after their 40 overs.
Best of the batters were Brett Carey, in a 'man of the match' performance, of 24 not out batting at number 10, Paul Clarke got 23 well made runs and Pete Felstead retired on 20 not out.
Apart from the special note about Pete Heywood, the match also was notable for the debut of Alan Coutts for the Baw Baw Bandicoots.
Alan fielded very well and then was undefeated on 10 runs at the close of the innings. Baw Baw officials offered congratulations to Alan and welcomed him to the club.
Next week the Bandicoots are away again, this time to East Burwood to take on the Eastern Dragons, where they hope to return to the winners list.