Lance Jenkinson
Werribee has produced a win for the ages to advance to the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association east-west group grand final.
The Tigers have set up an all-western suburbs decider against Williamstown after claiming a seven-wicket victory over Yarraville in the semi-final at Yarraville Oval at the weekend.
Tigers captain-coach Tim O’Brien rated the win as one of the best in his time at the club.
“It rates pretty high up there to be honest,” he said.
“To chase down 240, yeah, it was good conditions, but 240 in a final is never easy.
“We knew if we batted well and batted our overs, we’d be quite confident of getting the score, but still a big run chase in a final, it’s tough no matter what conditions you are playing in.”
Werribee restricted Yarraville to a gettable 9-241 off 80 overs.
The Tigers new ball operators Jonathan Burton and James Freeman had a major say in the outcome of the match.
The pair combined to bowl 48 overs, 15 maidens, 5-101, with Burton taking 2-55 off 27 and Freeman snaring a team-best 3-46 off 21.
“It was a monstrous effort from them,” O’Brien said.
“Jono got the first one early and Jim got the next two, so I think we had them 3-18, so we were looking to really attack them at that stage.
“Yarraville batted well, particularly [Luke] Reid was fantastic for 74.
“We dropped a couple of catches here and there where we could’ve really put our stamp on it, but they got away from us before tea a bit, so I brought Jono and Jim back after tea and they really put the clamps on them.”
Werribee’s run chase got off to a shaky start with Andrew Ford walking back to the pavilion with a duck.
The Dean brothers – Matt and Shaun – steadied the ship with a 58-run second wicket partnership before Matt went out for 19.
O’Brien came and went for 13 and the Tigers run chase was at the crossroads at 3-75.
It was the last blemish on the Werribee scorecard as Shaun Dean combined with Matthew Gudde for an unbroken 167-run stand that guided the side to victory.
Dean finished with a patient 96 not out off 181 balls, including 13 fours.
He backed up from his stellar knock of 70 not out in the qualifying final win over Altona a week earlier.
“He was our rock for the game,” O’Brien said.
“He just took off from where he was last week.”
Gudde was a little more aggressive in his approach, but it was a controlled aggression.
At no point during his 101 not out off 116 balls did he seem flustered.
“He has the potential to take a game away from sides and he definitely did that today,” O’Brien said.
“He batted fantastic.
“He’s always been very attacking, he hits a lot of boundaries and hits over the top.
“The thing that impressed me today was his ability to get his ones and twos and rotate the strike.”
In a dream grand final match up for cricket in the west, Werribee will travel to Williamstown to decide the premiers for 2019-20.
It is genuine toss of the coin affair with both teams in strong finals form and hardly able to be separated in the home-and-away rounds.
“They’re a quality side and they’ve got some really good players that we’ve played against for a long time,” O’Brien said.
“We’re really looking forward to taking them on.
“We’ll take in some confidence with two convincing finals wins two-down and three-down.
“We’re playing as good a cricket as we can at the moment.”
