Nondies-Cohuna won the toss and elected to bat first at home, and openers Angus Donat and Sam O’Shea managed to spend some time in the middle to start the innings.
Sam O’Shea was the first to depart, being caught by Billy Hawken off Marcus Stubb’s bowling at the end of the eighth over and departed for six.
First drop, Zeb Ellwood toiled until the end of the 13th over until he copped a lovely delivery from Stubbs who dismissed him lbw for a single run.
Nondies struggled to build any momentum early in their innings, with opener Donat the next to go in over 16 with Hawken having a day out in the field, hanging on to another off Riley Keath’s bowling.
Will O’Shea was the victim of a near-perfect delivery by Stubbs to dismiss him for a golden duck, leaving Nondies in trouble at 4-20.
Xavier Wishart and new batsman Will Ringin were able to develop a nice middle-order partnership for the fifth wicket considering the situation Nondies had found themselves in.
The pair got their side past the 50-run mark before Ringin edged behind to keeper Tyler Jones off Jye Keath’s bowling for 23.
Cooper Carmichael hung around for 21 balls alongside Wishart but failed to score a single run in that time, leaving the ground for a duck after Keath beat him all ends up.
Keath claimed Shaun Haffenden in his next over off a Blake Gibson catch, the number eight only adding one run to Nondies’ slim total.
Captain Kyeran Ellery wasn’t going to die wondering, scoring nine runs off 18 balls as his contribution, but eventually was clean bowled by Simon Tatt.
Unfortunate for Nondies, its 10 and 11 didn’t add any runs to the total as both were bowled by Blake Gibson in the same over just a ball apart, bringing the innings to a close.
After a strong bowling effort, L-G wrapped up Nondies’ first innings for 79 and now eyed a big total to bury them.
They did just that.
Tyler Jones and Billy Hawken opened the batting for L-G where they put on 71 runs for the first wicket.
Jones was ultimately caught by Zeb Ellwood off Sam O’Shea’s bowling for 34 runs; however, Jones had already done his job along with Hawken in establishing a good platform for L-G.
Yet, following Jones’ exit, the next few batsmen struggled to find runs against Nondies who had their tails up, with captain Josh O’Shea next to go for six after being trapped in front by Tim Johnson.
Simon Tatt suffered the same fate as O’Shea, being dismissed lbw by Johnson, this time for a pair of runs.
Johnson struck again just two deliveries later when Riley Keath was caught by Will O’Shea, securing Johnson a double-wicket maiden over.
Josh Hawken entered the crease along with Billy Hawken, who stood firm while batsmen fell around him and the pair played out the remaining overs before stumps.
L-G finished at 4-115. While not a bad start and already overtaking Nondies’ 79, they were at 71 before losing a wicket.
Billy Hawken’s heroic unbeaten 61 anchored their innings and him still being at the crease at the end of the day will be a hopeful prospect for L-G, who will look to accumulate runs quickly on day two.
Regardless, Leitchville-Gunbower appear to be in control against Nondies-Cohuna and a win in round four could see them make a sneaky case for finals come February.
