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WACA Premier Cricket: Rockingham-Mandurah score big win thanks to English import Pollock

Vanessa SchmittMandurah Coastal Times

ROCKINGHAM-Mandurah got into the groove of the season with two big victories over the weekend.

The positive results came through different means but the one-day beating of Scarborough, followed the next day by the important Twenty20 win against Fremantle, sees the Mariners in a positive frame of mind.

The round 2 pennant match against Scarborough at Abbett Park went all the visitors’ way, including the winning of the toss by captain Craig Simmons.

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Rockingham-Mandurah got a kick-along from new English import Ed Pollock, who could not have been more impressive with a rapid-fire 73. He destroyed the Gulls attack from just 56 balls, in dispatching six sixes and four boundaries.

Dane Ugle kept the flow going with 27 at better than a run-a-ball and skipper Simmons (63 from 76) and second gamer Cameron Reyne (46 off 45) knocked 100 for the sixth-wicket stand to build a promising effort into an imposing total of 9-289 from 50 overs.

Leon Coombs spearheaded the Mariners’ performance with the ball, claiming early wickets in a superb 10-over spell of 3-21.

Ugle showed off another string to his bow, by mopping up a middle-order Scarborough fightback.

He finished off with 4-39 and with Adam France (2-42), wiped out the Gulls from 4-150 to all out 170, to cue a rare Rockingham-Mandurah victory song in the Abbett Park changerooms.

Along with the comprehensive 119-run first-grade win, the third graders joined in the merriment by completing a 48-run victory.

Youngsters Ronan Hogarth and Ryan O’Keeffe got it done in both disciplines to make it a first win of the season for the team.

Hogarth made a fine 70, batting at number 5, before O’Keeffe’s 48, plus 46 from last year’s Baird Medal winner Shaun Guppy bumped up Rockingham-Mandurah’s score to 9-237 off 45 overs.

Hogarth then made early incisions into the Scarborough top-order to complete a fine day’s work with 4-26 from 7.5 overs.

His partner-in-crime O’Keefe snared 3-39 and the Mariners polished off the Gulls in the 40th over for 189.

The away teams took all four grades as Scarborough won second and fourth grades at Lark Hill.

Scarborough’s 190 was too much in the Seconds, while Mohit Yadav made 41 in fourth grade but all out for 105 was never going to be enough, as the visitors got home in ample time with just one wicket down.

In the T20 match last Sunday at Stevens Reserve, the home of arch-rivals Fremantle, Pollock continued his scorching start to his Australian sojourn, blazing 43 off 19 balls with seven boundaries and a six.

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