A poor day with the bat in and the field proved costly for Werribee in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association south-west.
Entering the finals on the back of a seven game winning streak, the Tigers looked liked a different team against Oakleigh on Saturday.
The Tigers were bowled out for 140 on their home pitch with six balls remaining.
Nathan Taylor made 49, but there wasn’t much other support.
Oakleigh through Ryan Pearson were able to get the job done, finishing 5-141, hitting the winning runs with 13 balls to spare.
Tigers captain Tim O’Brien said it wasn’t the sort of performance they had been looking for.
“It was a bad day,” he said. “We didn’t have enough runs on the board and then we didn’t field particularly well.
“We didn’t bowl too bad, but we didn’t support each other in the field.”
O’Brien said their pitch was two-pace which made it hard at times to bat. He said they didn’t think they had enough runs on the board.
“We needed about 170 to 180 and we thought we would have been a chance,” he said.
“We were 30 to 40 runs short from what we wanted.
“They bowled particularly well, but we didn’t nullify their bowling. Their keeper took a couple of great chances and that was probably the difference in the game.”
Pearson would lead the way for Caulfield making 81 at the top of the order.
It could have been a different story, with Pearson dropped early in this innings. It was one of three catches the Tigers would drop and prove costly..
“If we had been able to get two new batsmen in our ground, we could have been able to really squeeze them,” O’Brien said.
“Who knows what would have happened had we got Pearson early.”
Hamish Winter-Irving and Jonothan Freeman took two wickets each for the Tigers.
After losing their match, the Tigers had a close eye on the result of the Caulfield and Malvern game.
With Caulfield winning, it meant the Tigers were the highest ranked losing side and would get the double chance.
The Tigers now face Caulfield this Saturday in a semi final with a grand final spot on the line.
O’Brien knows it won’t be easy.
“We played them all the way back in round one,” he said.
“We have to play our best. They’ve been top of the ladder all year and won the flag last year.”
In the other match, Ormond beat Brighton. Ormond and Oakleigh will play in the other semi final.
It wasn’t all bad news for the Tigers, who won the club championship, with all for of their VSDCA sides playing in finals on Saturday.
The second XI had a win against Altona and is through to the semi finals.
The third XI lost their semi final against Yarraville by eight runs to be knocked out of the finals.
The fourth XI beat Preston to win through to the grand final against Kew.
