Harvey-Benger women’s team continues strong form, second and fourth-grade sides have narrow losses

Harvey-Benger’s women’s team held on for a 19-run win over Dalyellup on Sunday in Harvey.

The hosts won the toss and elected to bat but lost Renae Adams and Sam Bozanich early to be 2-21.

Taneeka De Ridder made a watchful 19 from 29 balls before being caught by Tasmyn Verhaaf off the bowling of Emma Northrop.

Brooke Vantwist continued her good from, hitting 10 boundaries on her way to 64 from 42 deliveries before she was retired.

Captain Megan Minton anchored the batting innings after Vantwist retired, reaching 48 from 54 balls as Harvey-Benger posted a total of 7-189.

In reply, Dalyellup’s chase started well, reaching 60 off 10 overs until Rachel Wright’s throw to Danae Stalteri resulted in the run out of Ruby Depiazzi for 10.

Stalteri then bowled Lily Boyle for 29 two balls later.

Verhaaf and Hannah Boyle then shared in a 96-run partnership until Verhaaf was dismissed by Vantwist for 35.

Boyle was then bowled in the very next over by Trinity Brown for 40, leaving Dalyellup at 4-157.

Minton claimed the final wicket of the innings by running out Northrop with a direct hit as Dalyellup were restricted to 5-170.

The best bowlers for Harvey-Benger were Brown (1-9 from six overs), Vantwist (1-22 from four overs) and Stalteri (1-31 from three overs).

The side now have a few weeks off, with their next game on January 11.

Harvey-Benger’s second-grade team suffered a disappointing defeat to Leschenault on Saturday by 22 runs.

Leschenault won the toss and elected to bat, producing an innings full of opportunities for the home side and some well composed partnerships which kept the game on an even keel.

Wickets were shared across the board with Kurt Thompson backing up his performance from last week with 3-24, receiving support from Julian Frederiksen (2-38) and Matt Chave (1-12) before Jarod Maughan (2-27) cleaned up the tail.

Rory Given (27) and Steve Hitchcliffe (22) were the best batters for Leschenault.

In reply, Harvey-Benger had a disastrous start, losing Haydn Jones and Brady Oxford in the first over without scoring to leave them at 2-1.

Opener Francois Roelofsz and Chave set about the rebuild and looked to be in control with a 70-run partnership before Roelofsz departed for 30.

When Joseph Cambrea departed shortly after for two and Chave followed in the next over for 21, the hosts were in trouble.

Matt Cooke did his best with the support of Maughan to get the hosts over the line but when he departed for a well-made 33, there was unfortunately too much to be done, with Harvey-Benger eventually bowled out for 137.

T20 action returns for the final weekend of cricket in 2024 with Harvey-Benger facing Marist in the morning before hosting Donnybrook in Harvey on Saturday afternoon.

Harvey-Benger’s fourth-grade lost a low-scoring thriller on Saturday, going down by seven runs away against Collie.

Losing the toss and finding themselves in the field, Harvey-Benger opening bowler David Cooper (2-16) was on song again, taking his season tally to 25 wickets through 10 games.

Cooper was joined in an excellent bowling partnership by the returning Shane Ytting (4-14), who showed tremendous control and made the most of conditions to drive the Collie batting collapse.

Whilst the bowling was tight, a few fielding errors later in the innings allowed Collie to scrape to all out for 87.

In reply, Harvey-Benger struggled to build momentum as the variability of bounce in the pitch increased.

In the face of some excellent bowling by the home team, Fraser Wray (14) and Tyler Bozanich (23) dug in to get the score moving.

Young gun Bozanich, the standout batter on a difficult day, then combined with Adrian Kirk (14) before Kirk was bowled trying to lift the scoring rate.

As the game reached its penultimate over, Harvey Benger found themselves needing eight runs to win with one wicket in hand.

Darren Bozanich was excellently caught at short midwicket from a shot that may otherwise have gone to the boundary, ending Harvey-Benger’s innings at all out for 80.

Despite the loss, the side have retained third spot on the ladder heading into this weekend’s double header of T20 games.