Werribee kicked off its Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association season off with a thrilling win on Saturday.
The Tigers were sent in to bat in tricky conditions, and looked to be in a spot of bother early with Taylors Lakes claiming its first wicket in just the third over of the game.
Shaun Dean was able to make up for the false stroke of his opening partner to top score for the Tigers with a handy 44 off 64 deliveries.
The middle overs were tricky for the Tigers, as they looked to be in trouble at 6-115, with Adam Alifraco and Jonathan Burton at the crease.
Yet, the two were brilliant in the dying overs putting up an unbeaten stand of 63.
“They’ve both batted well over the last couple of years so I had full confidence in them to push the score to get us to a decent total,” Tigers captain Tim O’Brien said.
Setting the Lions the task of just 179 for victory was always going to be tough for the Tigers.
Pressure was needed right throughout the innings, and none more so than when the Lions needed just four runs off the last over with two wickets in hand.
“It was always going to be tough batting first… but I thought if we could get around 160 to 180, it was a score on the board that we could defend if we bowled and fielded well,” O’Brien said.
However, thanks to some great death bowling by Matthew Grose and clever fielding from the Tigers, they were able to sneak away with a two run win.
“We probably got out of jail a little bit on the weekend I think, but full credit to the boys,’ O’Brien said.
“We knew we were never out of the game and it came down to the last over and we were able to put enough pressure on them to get the win.
“They only needed four runs to win, so we knew we had to bring the field up.
“We left one [fielder] out and we ended up getting a wicket where[Melisha Deshapriya] hit it down [Alifraco’s] throat.
“Which was handy, and that brought in number 11, we knew we had to put a lot of pressure on him and fortunately for us they tried to take a risky single and we got the run out.”
The close, heart-in-mouth, win was a perfect way to kick off the Tigers 2023-24 campaign.
The Tigers will face Altona on the weekend in a two day clash.
Harper Sercombe
