Bowling to the gallery? Lay it on thick! (9)

I believe the answer is:

overstate

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'lay it on thick' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'bowling to the gallery?' is the wordplay.
'bowling' becomes 'over' (cricket term).
'to the gallery?' becomes 'state' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'over'+'state'='OVERSTATE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for overstate that I've seen before include "lay it on thick" , "Exaggerate, go beyond bounds of truth" , "Exaggerate, make too much of" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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