Numurkah and Shepparton United split the points after opening Haisman Shield clash ends in draw

Batting first Shepparton United was bowled out for 138, but saved its blushes by returning the favour to the Blues in the penultimate over.

Plenty of talking points emerged from the game, namely the performances of Numurkah’s Tim Arnel and United’s Sam Nash.

Arnel engineered a firm knock of 58 before being removed by Nash, who snagged four other victims on the way to the first five-wicket haul of the new season.

The United coach shared a chat with Arnel after the game, with Nash stating it was more a case of three points gained rather than lost from his side’s perspective.

“It was an interesting game of cricket,” he said.

“I thought we performed really well, we were under the pump early and then fought pretty hard across nearly 90 overs that we played for the whole day.

“We were pretty happy that we ended up scraping away with three points.”

United’s order was littered with players who had built starts, but were removed before being able to kick on and raise the bat.

Englishman Dan Jones produced an admirable knock of 31, while Rehan Bari was good for his 28, guiding United through troubled waters on the long-awaited return to Princess Park.

Numurkah’s Riley Dawson and Shawn Boswell claimed two wickets apiece, while Luke Viney jagged three, bowling out the hosts for a shade less than 140.

The Blues, without Liam Gledhill and imports Ragu Aravinthan and James du Toit who are yet to arrive, were in the mud at 5-66 before Jahlan Lau and Arnel struck up a handy partnership.

The pair did most of the legwork, but the wheels fell off when Nash dismissed it in quick succession.

Abe Lake conjured a magical spell of death bowling to stop what felt imminent for Numurkah and when his delivery skittled Boswell’s stumps the cheer was enormous from the United lot.

“We were pretty happy in the end when Abe bowled him out, it was pretty exciting,” Nash said.

“Abe bowled really well, he came on at the end and bowled seven overs straight with a few wickets and was exceptional at the death which is really good for a guy that’s only played a handful of A-grade games.

“Dan (Jones) batted really well for his first knock for the club, he did a really good job at the top of the order.

“All the bats did pretty well, they all got little starts, but then no-one really managed to go with it.

“But it was really good, it was a beautiful day as well, so a great day to be back playing cricket at Princess Park.

“We had a lot of people down there ― it was probably one of the biggest crowds I’ve seen at a game of local cricket for a while.”

As for Numurkah, loose bowling was an apparent fault in the draw.

The Blues conceded 17 extras in the first innings which was perhaps the difference between taking home three points instead of six in the opinion of Lau.

“We were probably a bit scratchy to be honest, we were a bit underdone, we probably bowled too many wides,” he said.

“We weren’t too bad, we just couldn’t get enough partnerships going with the bat.

“Obviously Tim batted very well, but he’s not long coming off a season in England, so he was probably above and beyond the rest of us.

“We got ourselves into a winning position, but a few of us threw our wickets away a bit; that’s where we felt that we probably let it slip.

“There’s plenty of room for improvement, we’ve just got to get back on the horse and go again.”