BDCA 2023: Harvey-Benger suffer first second-grade defeat, Bradbury and Marshall’s effort not enough

Harvey-Benger’s second grade suffered their first loss of the season with a five-wicket defeat away to Dalyellup on Saturday. Captain Anton Fimmano won the toss and chose to bat in what seemed to be great batting conditions, but Harvey-Benger struggled to put any sort of momentum together throughout the innings. The visitors’ top order all fell reasonably cheaply, with Mahdi Saleem (13 off 49 balls) trying his utmost to hold the innings together. Joseph Cambrea (13 off 20 balls) and Kyle Hickman (18 off 40 balls) also did their best but Harvey-Benger were bowled out for 96. In return, Kye McCreery made an early breakthrough, dismissing Ben Cherry for a golden duck with a great catch at second slip by Matt Chave. Dalyellup were making light work of the chase before Saleem made two breakthroughs in two balls alongside wickets from Chave and David Cooper to put some pressure on Dalyellup at 5-60. Harvey-Benger couldn’t find another breakthrough, though, with Dalyellup reaching the required 97 runs with five wickets left. In fifth grade, solid batting performances from Marist duo Julian Bradbury (36 off 39 balls) and Daniel Marshall (24 off 56 balls) were not enough to lift the Blues against Dalyellup at Forrest Park North. Set 101 for victory, the visitors got home by four wickets in the 34th over, with Gagandeep Singh top-scoring on 37.