By David Nagel
Officer (3/137d and 1/35) left-arm medium-pacer Noah Parraga (5/19) has had an immediate impact on his return to first XI cricket after taking a rare hat-trick in an outright victory over Melbourne Sixers (107 and 63) on Saturday.
Parraga, who hasn’t played in the District team since hurting his knee on a roof after round one, ripped the heart out of the Sixers middle order with a devastating display of bowling.
The 18-year-old – who took his first hat-trick against Officer while playing for Gembrook in the under-12s – was back to his lethal best after one game in the twos.
He needed help with the first part of his hat-trick, but then completed the task by himself.
His first scalp was Sixers’ skipper Gayan Ekanayake (9).
“We’re both lefties, so I kept it outside off, he played at one, didn’t get enough of it, and was caught at gully; a difficult catch but Chad (Chathura Imbulagoda) made it look easy,” Parraga recalled.
“The next two hit the top of off.
“The second one (Lisath Ranasinghe) was a good delivery, but the third one (Sampath Dias) I was a bit nervous and I thought I bowled it a bit short, and it probably was.
“It just died down and clipped the top of the bail.”
Parraga explained that his skipper Cooper Pursell had set the tone for the hat-trick ball.
“He told me the plan, he said ‘everyone in’, and there were three helmets in close and no-one more than three metres from the bat,” he explained.
“I think it was three slips, two gully’s and everyone else in close.
“It was unreal, the boys got around me pretty well.
“It was my first game back from injury since round one, so I’m pretty happy with how things panned out.”
Officer declared overnight 30 runs ahead of the Sixers, who could manage just 63 in their second dig.
Parraga (17) then top scored in the miniscule run-chase, which leaves the Bullants a whopping 26 points clear at the top of the CCCA District ladder.
“Everyone is pretty up and about at the moment, but no-one is getting a big head, we’re staying pretty humble after Upper Beaconsfield got us in the grand final last year,” Parraga explained.
He also gave an insight into the support he received before the hat-trick ball.
“One of the boys came up to me and said, ‘I’m going to be pretty disappointed in you if you don’t take this wicket,” he said with a chuckle.
The Bullants round out 2024 with a trip to Lang Lang.
