ROUND Three of the 2026-27 Seymour District Cricket Association (SDCA) season saw the A and B grade Redbacks continue their hot streaks. A Grade - Alexandra 1/49 defeated Pyalong 10/48 The A Grade hosted Pyalong and wasted little time in delivering a comprehensive rout. Before the A Grade game at Leckie Park, Benny Wallis and Vinu Hewage won the toss and sent Pyalong into bat. There were a few changes to the side this game, due to Will Ashton and Dinesh Sivakumar being unavailable. The boys that came in for the first A grade game of the year were Jimmy Fulton, Jordy Ferrier and Levi Ronalds. The youngest A-Grader on the ground was Benji Cavill, who joined his father Tim and helped as a substitute fielder. Thanks for helping out, Benji. The Wal brothers opened the bowling and were economical from the outset. The Pyalong openers batted well at the start and were 0/20 after 12 overs. Once Luke got the first, the wickets started to fall. Luke bowled out his allotted nine overs and finished with brilliant figures of 3/18. For the second match in a row, Luke set the tone of the match with his consistent bowling. Matt also bowled well finishing with two wickets from his opening spell. Hewage and Jordy Ferrier came on next. Vinu struck with his first ball and then bamboozled the batters that followed, leading to astonishing figures of 4/2. Jordy chipped in with two wickets, bowling beautifully and wrapping up the Pyalong innings for a total of 47. Incredible bowling and fielding again by the A grade boys. Scotty Whitehead and Vinu opened the batting. Unfortunately, Scotty was out early. Blake Portbury finally was able to bat for the first time this season. Looking very comfortable and composed. He was able to hold up an end while Vinu went to town on the Pyalong bowlers, smacking them for fours and sixes on his way to 30 odd not out. And no doubt another man of the match performance. The Redbacks now have a week off, before a much-anticipated match hosting Tallarook. B Grade - Alexandra 7/140 defeated Avenel 6/139 Alexandra B Grade travelled to Avenel with a largely cobbled-together team and prevailed after a tight contest. Levi Ronalds, Jordy Ferrier and Jesse Elks were all promoted and several players were unable to participate on Saturday. Consequently, the B Grade side had a slew of changes to the line-up. The team captain, Andrew Wood couldn’t make it and Nathan “Oopy” Waugh was given the chance to gain some leadership experience. Thaya Sathisivam, MJ Hendricks, Will Ellis and Charlie Fry all returned to the side. Brett Christie joined his son Harrison and filled the team’s groan-worthy banter quotient. Aisha Hendricks made her debut for the Redbacks. Aisha has experience playing in the Geelong Women’s league and brought a good amount of nous into the side. Avenel won the toss and elected to bat. Their batters protected their wickets with resolve although it wasn’t long before Will Ellis daintily flicked the bail of Avenel’s opener. Christian Papi held on for a while until Charlie Fry came on and found the batter’s outside edge. He was caught behind by Michael Mawson, playing as keeper for the first time in the season. The Avenel run rate ran rate was strangled by Fry and the off spin of Reigan Kuttikadan. This induced false shots, one leading to a wicket with a catch to Sathasivam. Waugh and Aisha Hendrix also chimed in with some off spin that frustrated the Avenel batters. Harrison Christie was pressed into bowling, and his full spell yielded two wickets including a very sharp chance taken by Will Donohue. Avenel’s Archie Butler toiled hard to accumulate 25 runs until Will Ellis returned to the attack and swung another ball into the stumps. Avenel set Alexandra a target of 140. The chase started with Michael Mawson resuming his combative contest with Christian Papi. Mawson was struck in the box first ball but soon settled into a productive partnership with Fry, who was methodically accumulating runs through the covers. The opening partnership was broken when Mawson managed to ricochet a leg-side wide ball onto the wicket with his back foot. “Oopy” Waugh came on and aggressively hit balls around the ground. This took the momentum away from Avenel until Fry was bowled out by Jamie Kanters for 25. Aisha Hendricks followed soon after and can consider herself to be unlucky when she was dismissed leg before wicket when the umpire disregarded the height of the ball. “Oopy”, Harrison Christie and wide Avenel bowling combined to add 68 for the fifth wicket and brought Alexandra to the brink of victory at 3/132. With bad weather looming, Waugh was caught out on a well-made 56. Christie followed soon after, with a score of 25, by scooping a catch back to the bowler. Redbacks’ nerves were starting to fray when Will Donohue came and left as did Will Ellis, who spent more time getting to the crease than occupying it. Reigan Kuttikadan and MJ Henricks were composed and urgent enough to hit the winning runs just minutes before the heavens opened. This was a well-deserved and fighting win by the Redbacks, whose next challenge is Tallarook at Rebel Park in two weeks.
