Mornington skipper Rhyce Kliendienst achieved not one, but two firsts on Saturday as Mornington hammered Kookaburras to make it three from three.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The allrounder claimed his first-ever hat-trick en route to his maiden five-wicket haul in Gunnedah.
Coming on at first change and with Kookaburras already in trouble thanks to Mitch Foster (2-11) and Nick Millar (1-17), Kliendienst tore through the middle and lower order to finish with 5-5 as they routed a 10-man Kookas for just 39.
His best bowling performance for the club he said he was "just trying to bowl at the stumps and nice and full", and reflected on his hat-trick as "the luck of the draw and three good balls, and three balls that asked questions".
READ ALSO:
Mornington then took just 5.2 overs to chase down the runs, Tim McDermott (14no) and Henry Johns (8no) finishing off the job Kliendienst and co had started with the ball.
As nice as the individual success was, for Kliendienst the most pleasing part was the team's success.
While still only early days, Mornington have been the feelgood story of the season.
"It's a lot different to last year," he remarked.
"This time last year we were none from four or five games."
And, as he added "didn't look like winning them".
But as the season went on they became more competitive.
"Towards the end of last year there were a few games weren't far off the mark," he said.
"We pushed a lot of teams but couldn't get the win."
This season has been a continuation of that.
After joining the club for the 2018/19 season Kliendienst stepped up to the captaincy last season and said he was keen to "give it another go".
He attributed their success so far to a combination of a few things.
The younger players are all a year older, wiser and more experienced at the first grade level.
A few new faces have also made a big difference; Millar and Foster a prime example.
Millar took 6-31 for them two weeks ago, while Foster has been amongst the wickets in all three games so far.
"It's good to have another couple of bowlers there other than myself and Ben Hennessy and a couple of younger players," he said.
While they were without Hennessy on Saturday, Kliendienst always had in mind to send Kookaburras in.
"I just knew with the bowling attack we had yesterday we always going to bowl first," he said.
They knew there were "one or two batsmen" that they had to get out, and felt if they could get them cheaply and keep taking wickets they could keep them to under 100.
It was their second win over Kookaburras for the season and they will be looking to do the same next weekend when they take on Court House.
Seven wicket winners in their last meeting, Kliendienst is expecting them to be a much tougher proposition. That last game they were missing a few key players.
Mornington will be without Millar but will pick-up Rob Anderson and Chris DeGroot.