A WIN’S a win, right? Not in the case of Hoppers Crossing’s bitter-sweet downing of rivals Airport West-St Christopher’s in the penultimate round of the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division on Saturday.
The Cats failed to capitalise on a red hot start, sett-ling for a first innings result, which left them a wide six points adrift of the top four with one round to go.
“Probably not the win we wanted, but a win none the less,” Cats president Steve McNamara told the Weekly.
“An outright would’ve really put us in good stead. Now we’ve got to win the next game and hope that results go our way.”
When the Cats, who posted 228 in their first dig, had the West Saints in dire trouble on 7-44 overnight, the expectation was the home side could wrap up the tail end cheaply and enforce the follow on.
They encountered an unforeseen road block in the form of West Saints captain Robert Rutley.
Rutley, the No. 8 batsman, would go on to make 87 not out, killing the prospect of a much-needed Cats outright win.
“‘Browny’ [Cats skipper Darrel Brown] was confident that if we knocked them over early and got them back in, it would’ve put them under enormous pressure,” McNamara said.
“Rutley took the game away from us. He made it that impossible task. He had the experience to blunt the attack and take the pressure off.”
The West Saints managed to eek out 152.
Their biggest feat was to see out 47 overs, having been seven wickets down after 13.
The Cats went in search of quick runs, making 6-94 off 30 overs with Asif Jan leading the charge against his old side with 27 not out.
It left them with just 16 overs to take 10 wickets, a forlorn task at this level of cricket.
The West Saints finished on 5-107.
The Cats will enter the final round needing to beat St Bernard’s on the road and hoping Beaumaris loses to McKinnon and does not picks up as fewer points as possible while doing so.
“We’ve just got to really concentrate on our own game and let the rest take care of itself,” McNamara said.
“Our boys are starting to hit their straps a bit, which may be a game too late.”
VTCA
Senior division: Hoppers Crossing 228 (W Gardner 58 L Goegan 51 TD Darshanapriya 35no M Tubb 26 R Rutley 3-26 Z Racovolis 2-40 L Macumber 2-41) and 6-94dec (A Jan 27no L Macumber 2-17 A Emmanuel 2-23) d Airport West St Christophers 152 (R Rutley 87no D Brown 5-43 TD Darshanapriya 2-58) and 5-107 (I Blanchett 43 T Van Den Berg 26 B Apps 2-21 D Brown 2-47)
West B1: Seabrook 168 (S Morgan 48 J Collins 44 R Sandhu 4-15 D Hicks 2-22 T Semmens 2-46) lt Point Cook 235 (J Farmer 71no P Pullar 27 T Semmens 26 T Bean 25 A Dorricott 3-27 D Sarkhell 2-29 D Kilfoy 2-53); Werribee Centrals 5-224dec (D Cachia 56 B Hemmingson 56 L Simpson 51 C Duffin 36 D Shanahan 2-18) and 9-216 (MW Nankervis 50 B Hemmingson 50 L Simpson 32 G Semerzidis 3-14 S Levic 3-34) d Kingsville Baptists 101 (RN Khwaja 53no AK Edrich 5-29 P Crea 2-8 S Crea 2-30).
