That’s right, following on from Cameron Roach‘s 150th senior match, there was another major player milestone achieved in Saturday’s C Grade clash as the man, the myth, the legend himself, Oliver Lukins scored 18* from 14 balls to tick over to 1,504 runs in senior cricket for the Wistow Cricket Club.
Debuting way, way, way back in 2007/08, for much of his career Oli was a left arm seam bowler before developing into a technically unusual but effective middle order bat in more recent seasons.
Oli’s breakout season with the bat came in B Grade in 2012/13, when he scored 210 runs @ 19.09 featuring his first two (2) half centuries, including a career high 65. His best season with the bat, however, came in C Grade in 2015/16 when Oli scored 266 runs @ 33.25 including his next two (2) half centuries. After Christmas that season Oli received a promotion to first drop & excelled, scoring 58, 27, 36*, 22, 15, 27 & 50.
Interestingly, the Echidnas won premierships in each of those seasons, with Oli scoring the winning 4 in the 2012/13 GF victory over Ashbourne, whilst he scored 50 from 60 balls in the 2015/16 GF victory against Maccy, putting on an 88 run second wicket partnership with opener James Stratfold to see the Echidnas comfortably chase down the Redbacks’ 119 with almost 10 overs to spare.
Whilst Oli’s career average of 14.32 may seem somewhat pedestrian, his average is hurt both by his early seasons in senior cricket and by a couple of seasons in A Grade between his two (2) Premierships. Otherwise, since the start of his breakout 2012/13 season, Oli has scored 968 runs @ 22.00 in B Grade & C Grade, whilst his best and most frequent position in the batting order is first drop, where he’s scored 514 runs @ 24.48 and has made four (4) of his six (6) career half centuries.
Oli is also of course well known as one of the more unique personalities in WCC history and is the only known player to have ever been unavailable for selection due to backyard cricket commitments, something which has happened twice this season!!
Well done Oli!
