Boasting a talented line-up with finals know-how, Werribee is a side that no one in Sub-District cricket’s top three wanted to confront in the first week of the finals.
Yarraville drew the short straw and came out dazed and confused after a seven-wicket loss in the qualifying final at the Yarraville Oval on Sunday.
Clearly, the Tigers mean business, and do not want to just make up the numbers.
“We had a really good weekend, very clinical and played some good cricket,” Tigers captain-coach Mitch Johnstone told Star Weekly.
Werribee wants to achieve the rare feat of winning a flag from the bottom half of the top six.
It is not out of the realms of possibility in this competition as the Tigers can attest.
In 2013-14, the Tigers went into the finals as the top ranked side and warm favourites to take out the prize, only for fourth-placed Noble Park to swoop on the premiership in a finals shock.
Conditions being equal, Werribee believe they can emulate what Noble Park achieved just two seasons ago.
It could mean they need to beat first, second and third on the ladder to do it.
They head to second-placed Caulfield for a two-day game starting on Saturday as the underdogs, but that does not worry them one iota.
“They had a dominant victory against Hoppers Crossing, so they’ll be cock-a-hoop on their home patch and in front of their home crowd, so it’s going to be tough for us,” Johnstone said. “We’ll back ourselves, we haven’t lost a two-day game all year and have been pretty dominant in that format.
“We’re confident in our formula, we know finals cricket is a bit of a lottery, so we’ll just have to bring our best. The competition is down to four and we’re pretty excited.”
Werribee blitzed its qualifying final against Yarraville, wrapping up the match by tea on the second day.
The Tigers bowled the home side out for 117 with spinner Johnstone leading the way with 4-29 off 18 overs and speedster James Freeman taking 3-34 off 13.
“James was bowling a lot of short stuff at the body and my main method of approach is to throw the ball up and invite the batsman to play a shot, so I guess there’s two different ways to skin a cat and it worked,” Johnstone said.
Werribee reached the target three down in 57.2 overs.
It was a slow burn for the Tigers – scoring at just 2.09 runs per over – but reaching the target was never in doubt.
Shaun Dean edged closer to 700 runs on the season with 48 not out, while Marcus Worrall added 39.
“You never know with chasing those low scores in finals,” Johnstone said.
“It can throw up a bit of a challenge, but we took our time and did it comfortably in the end.”
In the lower divisions, Werribee has reached the fourth XI semi finals, where it will host Yarraville at Soldiers Reserve. Hoppers Crossing will feature in the third XI semis, away to Brunswick at Gillon Oval.
Check out Star Weekly’s qualifying final photo gallery HERE
