North Albury captain Ash Borella questions Lavington's variety with the ball

North Albury captain Ash Borella has questioned Lavington’s variety.

“I think on our wicket the pace isn’t as suited,” he said.

“It’s just got no grass on it, so there’s not much for the seamers.

“We bowled 30 overs of spin, they bowled eight.”

North’s three spinners took eight wickets, while the Panthers’ sole spinner Michael Galvin was wicketless.

“That was one of the things we discussed,” Lavington quick Brett Davies said.

WELL WIDE

The 10 teams bowled an incredible 128 wides.

The association adopted a new rule with any ball down leg side an illegal delivery.

St Patrick’s led the charge with 24.

“We just lost our way, it was probably only a patch of 10 or 15 overs where we bowled 20 of them I reckon,” captain Matt Crawshaw said.

All bowlers delivered at least one, but that was the only blight on spinner Nick Flood’s performance, taking 5-16 from 10 overs with five maidens.

“He just hits a consistent length,” Crawshaw said.

BIG DAY OUT

Wodonga’s Michael Grohmann celebrated his first day of the summer in style, averaging 92.

He made an unbeaten 50 against East Albury in the under 16s and then posted 42, including a 94-run stand for the fourth wicket, with captain-coach Robbie Jackson at provincial level.

“He’s got enormous potential and is a very level-headed kid,” Jackson said.

“His workrate’s as high as any I’ve seen in a young fella.”

He won’t have a better mentor in terms of preparation than Jackson, who’s ultra professional.

WHAT A CATCH

North Albury’s Callum Langlands has an early contender for best of the season.

“He took a horizontal one-hand catch to his left to dismiss Darcy I’Anson,” Borella said.

And St Pat’s Mitch O’Brien produced two stunning direct hits, one from point and the other from the boundary.

“It was a hit to ‘cow corner’ and they tried to come back for the second and he just hurled it in from the boundary to hit one stump,” Crawshaw said.

Jackson though said Wodonga’s fielding was its poorest in the first three weeks.

STRANGLED

Tallangatta’s attack tied down Albury, which crawled to 116 from 43.4 overs.

“Sahib Malhotra and Lachie Paton bowled 20 overs for 40 runs and the scoreboard basically stopped,” Bushies’ captain Matt Armstrong said.

Indian all-rounder Malhotra took 3-19 from 10, while Paton chipped in with 2-21.

Meanwhile, recruit Phil Neville finds himself in an interesting position every week.

“He’s a schoolteacher here and a lot of the juniors he actually teaches them,” Armstrong said.

WELCOME BACK

East Albury was handed an example of what it missed out on last season when Ryan de Vries claimed 4-39 against the powerful Wodonga.

The 23-year-old missed a year with a knee complaint.

He bowled first change, so the Crows now have a dangerous pace attack in the consistent Cameron White and the underrated Michael Brown, who’s coming off his breakout season, finishing 11^th on the wicket taker’s list with 25 at 19.

Former Kiewa star de Vries also showed his ability with the bat, scoring a vital 23 from 33 balls at number nine.