Eden cricketing prodigy Matt Bell has brought his team back from the brink in stunning form to claim an outright win over Merimbula on Saturday.
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The first innings result for Merimbula would have looked like the outcome was sewn up when Eden scored just 57 runs.
Captain Reece Wheeler knocked 15 runs, while Isaac Walker mustered 16 to salvage what he could in the tail end, but the rest of the order fell over briskly and cheaply.
The Macdonald brothers of Braiden and Jacob decimated the Eden side, claiming five and four wickets respectively for minimal totals.
Unfortunately, the celebrations came to an abrupt end when the ensuing Merimbula innings was bowled clean for just 38 runs.
Jeremy Fernando built up 19 runs not-out, but couldn’t keep a batting partner as the Knights bombed.
Five ducks ensured a miserable total to close out the first innings, but the Knights’ woes weren’t over yet.
After such a short supply of runs from both teams, there were still overs to play in the first round.
However, Eden came out firing to sit on 2/75 before Saturday’s play resumed.
Regularly a champion for the club in his bowling efforts, it was Matt Bell setting the stage with his batting to make life difficult for the Knights.
In hot conditions on Saturday under threat of rain, the southern side appeared to opt for a “four or nothing” approach to its batting.
Bell was kept quiet for overs at a time, but would break into flurries of fours to reel back the scoring order.
In the field though, Ash Postance was having a magnificent game, taking the wicket of Patrick Kearney and halting plenty of boundaries.
When Bell was finally dismissed on 72, it was Charles Aggenbach taking over the reins of the fielding honours to catch key wickets of Drew Mudaliar and Tim Bowes.
Ray Fisher’s spin bowling helped the Knights to clean up Eden’s tail end, but the host team had done the damage on the scoreboard.
Eden declared on 8/187, leaving the Knights with a massive total to chase.
Runs trickled in for the Knights, but finishing on 4/83 denied any hope of scoring the competition points as Eden claimed the outright lead on the ladder.
Ash Postance backed up his fielding efforts to lead the Knight’s scoring with 24 runs, but the Knights found themselves too far behind.
Brendan Daley chipped in a dozen runs as opener, but Merimbula struggled to gain traction as the Eden pace attack kept the situation quiet. Bowling honours in the second innings were shared by Bell and Matt Foat as the pair claimed two wickets each.
The strong finish sees the Eden club taking a comfortable lead on top of the competition ladder with just three more rounds to play before semi-finals.
Eden plays Pambula at the Pambula Sporting Complex on Saturday from 1pm.