Bandicoots bested by Goannas

The Baw Baw Bandicoots over 60s cricketers couldn't quite find the runs they needed in a defeat to Gippsland Goannas on Sunday.
After all games in the Warragul and District Cricket Association were cancelled on Saturday, it was left to the old blokes from the Baw Baw Veterans and the Gippsland Goannas to provide the cricketing highlights of the weekend.
On a slightly slow wicket at Bellbird Park in Drouin, the Baw Baw locals batted first and struggled to gauge the pace of the wicket.
Runs were hard to get, and the innings was littered with shots that ballooned off the bat, as the batters were through their shots a little too soon.
The openers were out for single figures and while the next three batters in Brett Carey, Daryl Williams and Anthony Faltum each survived their 30 balls, scores of 10, seven, and 13 from those 90 balls saw Baw Baw creep along to only 41 off the first 20 overs.
After the drinks break, the only batter to show good timing on the difficult wicket was Pete Felstead, who compiled a well made 18, which included three boundaries.
Another highlight of the later part of the batting innings was Mick Cussen, who looked untroubled in batting out his 30 balls for 10 runs. Well done to big Mick.
At the close of innings, after the Bandicoots' 40 overs were completed, they had struggled to only 5/104. This was a total that was going to be very tough to defend against the powerful Goannas line up.
After the lunch break the Baw Baw Bandicoots took to the field and were presented with an outstanding spell of bowling from both opening bowlers.
Kev Larkman bowled eight overs of medium pace for figures of 1/22 and at the other end, Brett Carey tantalised the batsmen with his mix of 'offies,' leggies' and change of pace balls to finish with eight overs for four maidens and 1/12.
At one stage Brett bowled 22 dot balls in succession, which was like striking gold for Baw Baw in defending such a low total.
At the drinks break, Baw Baw had kept the Goannas to only 55 and were right in the game.
Unfortunately for them, two of the Goannas batters struck a bit of form and made a quickfire 50-odd runs between them and the game was as good as lost, the Goannas reaching the target with six wickets to spare.
Daryl Williams chipped in with six terrific overs, despite a hamstring injury, to take 1/7. The other wicket-taker was Mark McLauchlan with 1/15 off four overs.
The Bandicoots welcomed another new player to the club in Ian Gray. While Ian batted without luck, he bowled two very good overs of off-breaks, and his fielding was simply outstanding. Ian probably saved at least 25 runs in the field and was a welcome addition.
Baw Baw's man of the match was Mick Cussen for his terrific all round performance.