Royals cruise to top spot of Albany and Districts Cricket Association A-grade ladder with comfortable win

Royals moved to top spot on the Albany and Districts Cricket Association A-grade ladder after a dominant double bonus-point win over Mt Barker at Turf North on Saturday. The win helped the Lions leapfrog Collingwood Park on the standings after 10 rounds, moving five points clear at the top with five rounds left in the regular season. The Lions won the toss and it proved a crucial one to win as they went on to post 6-223 at the conclusion of 50 overs before tearing through the Bulls batting order to win by 120 runs Myles Holland dominated with the bat with 72 off 131 balls and had plenty of support from Lincoln Joy (52 off 73 balls) and Mitch Green (31 off 38) in the triumph. Things were uncertain in the early stages for the Lions with Steven Scott taking the important scalp of opener Ted Batchelor for seven. Joy and Holland shared in a 98-run partnership with Joy falling to Paul Osborne in the 29th over shortly after reaching his half century. Wickets were hard to come by for the Bulls as captain Mitch Green kept the runs ticking over before he was dismissed by Nathan Crudeli. Crudeli went on to snare a hat-trick, trapping Dylan Holt in front for a duck and then clean bowling Matt France with his first ball faced to leave the Lions reeling at 5-168. However, valuable contributions from Jack Hastie (29no) and Lorcan McNamara (14no) helped the Lions set the Bulls a difficult 224 to win. Crudeli’s scintillating three-ball spell helped him finish with terrific bowling figures of 3-39 while fellow seamer Scott took 2-40. The Bulls failed to fire with the bat early with Todd Hammond (4), Clayton Wood (1), Neil Ferreira (30) and Adam Ditchburn (0) falling before their side reached 50. Scott (17) and Crudeli (35) steadied the ship with a 43-run stand but a Bulls collapse soon after all but ended their hopes, as Scott, Seth Davis (0), Jarrad Gardner (5) and Crudeli all departing within seven overs of each other. The Lions bowlers snared the final two wickets cheaply to skittle the Bulls, who were playing without skipper Jeremy Wood and opener Alex Fergie, for 103 in reply. Youngster Teague Valli was outstanding with figures of 3-23 from eight overs and he had great support from McNamara (2-17) and Hayden Davies (2-12) as their side recorded a fifth 50-over win of the season.