Albany’s Edmunds, Crudeli face Test heroes in Queensland clash

Albany duo Nathan Crudeli and Tim Edmunds have rubbed shoulders with some greats of Australian cricket after being part of the exhibition match at Australian Country Cricket Championships on Sunday.

Crudeli and Edmunds were both named in the ACCC All-Australian team at last year’s championships and as a result were selected as a player and coach respectively in the Australian Country XI to play a Bulls Masters All-Stars team in a special exhibition game at Heritage Park in Toowoomba.

The Bulls Masters team contained former Australian Test cricketers Michael Kasprowicz and Andy Bichel along with ex-Queensland stars Nathan Reardon, Chris Hartley and Luke Feldman.

Crudeli and Edmunds were joined by fellow WA touring member Aaron Burrage, also an All-Australian last year, in the Australian representative side.

The Bulls batted first and showed their class, making 7-168 from their 20 overs.

Brian May top scored with 50 off 38 balls while Bichel came in at No.4 and crunched 25 off 16 including two sixes.

Crudeli opened the bowling and felt the full force of hard-hitting openers Reardon and Troy Gurski as his two overs went for 26 runs.

The Australian side fell well short in reply, bowled out for 115 as South Australia’s Jared Marston made 40 and Burrage chipped in with 23.

Crudeli was bowled by Bichel, a man with 58 Test wickets and 769 first-class scalps, for four runs.

The exhibition game was played after the completion of the men’s Twenty20 games at the championships.