Two of Ballarat's rising cricket stars are enjoying stellar starts to their seasons in the Victorian Premier cricket.
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BCA cricketers Blake Thomson and Jack Riding both sit top two in the men's premier firsts and seconds batting standings.
Thomson, who played the first four games of the season for East Ballarat, sits second on the men's premier firsts batting standings having smashed 563 runs from his 10 one-day matches.
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His average is 80.43 for the season with a high score of 100.
More impressively he has five 50s to his name and boasts three not-out performances.
Thomson sits sixth in the men's premier firsts champion player award with 121.60 points. He trails leader Eamonn Vines of Geelong by 18.4 points.
Melbourne have eight wins from its first 12 games, sitting second on the ladder with 48 points.
It trails ladder leaders Carlton by six points and sits two points clear of St Kilda and Northcote.
In the men's premier seconds competition Jack Riding, who hails from Ballarat-Redan, is enjoying a dominant season with the bat for Geelong.
He is leading the batting standings by 122 runs, with 521 runs to his name from his 11 matches.
His average is 57.89 for the season with an impressive high score of 133 not-out.
With three 50s and two not outs to his name also, Riding is enjoying a rich run of form for Geelong.
He said he always expects to bat well but even he didn't see this kind of start to his season coming.
"Always have high expectations on myself but I wasn't really expecting to be leading the runs. I guess you just work hard at your game and it comes off on game-day," he said.
"I'm pretty happy with where I am at the moment with my batting but always want to get better and make more runs for the side."
He added that he's hoping to continue to put pressure on selectors for a firsts debut as finals quickly approach.
"They're pretty set (at the top of the order) but there's always that chance, I'll just keep banging the door down. They've communicated to me that they want me to bat top three in the ones, so that's where they see me in the long-term future," he said.
He leads the men's premier seconds champion player with 111.20 points, just over eight points clear of Andrew Humphries in second place.
Geelong have eight wins from its first 12 games and are ladder leaders.
It leads second placed Footscray by four points.
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