Emerald opener Ian Crosher was a lot more organised during his 101-ball stay at the crease than he was in the lead up to his marvellous innings against Pakenham Upper/Toomuc on Saturday.
The soon-to-be 54-year-old was the shining light for the Bombers, crunching 15 fours and two sixes on his way to an unbeaten 110 not out, leading the home side to a score of 1/234 and a 132-run victory over the Yabbies (8/102) in E Grade at Worrell Reserve.
But his preparation leading in; well it wasn’t all smooth sailing!
“I had a couple of hits indoors but, like all us older blokes, you can’t see the ball in the lights,” Crosher said with a chuckle.
“Then everything got washed out last week in the lead up, but I managed to sneak down to Saxon Sports and get a small whack in down there.”
But game-day preparations would also take an unwanted twist for the veteran left-hander.
“I turned up on time, but forgot my whites, like all old blokes do at some stage, so I went home, grabbed them, and padded up with about five minutes to spare.
“I walked out and hit the first three balls for four and things took off from there.
“The boys we played bowled quite well, but their fielding probably let them down.
“They dropped me when I was on fifty, and there was one they didn’t get a hand on where I thought I might be in trouble as well.
“As the body got sorer, there was probably more four hitting than running between the wickets.”
Crosher opened the batting with 17-year-old Jack Ferrier, who made 20, before sharing an unbroken stand with 15-year-old talent Ethan Thomas (65 not out).
Crosher, who loves a short ball, fully understands his development role in the side.
“The whole thing is just a training exercise for the young blokes, and that’s why they got me to open,” he said.
“Young Jack Ferrier that I opened with, we’re trying to work on his game, and he played some really nice shots before their captain (Grant Horsburgh) took a really nice catch.
“Then young Ethan Thomas came in and he’s a very likely prospect.
“At Emerald at the moment, we seem to have this really good cluster of young players coming through, and we older blokes need to make room so they get the right attention.
“We’ve got some really good young cricketers coming through and it’s all about working on those boys and making them better cricketers.”
In other games in E Grade East, Srikanth Deshpande (3/3) and Abhishek Shetty (3/17) took three wickets each in Avengers (5/75) five-wicket win over Pakenham (9/74), while Aidan James (30), David Smethurst (27) and Harry Austin-Groome (23) all made valuable contributions in Officer’s (8/142) strong win over Cardinia (92).
In E Grade West, an 88-run partnership between Mark (58) and Adam Prendergast (24) led Tooradin (6/134) to a four-wicket win over Kerala Strikers (9/121), while Mike Chapman (42), Nital Tawde (28) and Alok Chaudhri (24) guided Carlisle Park (150) to a 64-run win over Merinda Park (5/86).
