Werribee captain Shaun Dean trudged off Chirnside Park on Saturday with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
After a 39-run loss to Roxburgh Park- Broadmeadows, Dean was almost certain his side would be consigned to a spot outside the top six and at the mercy of finals-thirsty rival clubs heading into the last round of the sub-district north-west first XI season.
Where luck has deserted him at the coin toss this summer, it was on his side as results filtered through from around the grounds after his post-match address to his players.
Ivanhoe, the team in prime position to take the Tigers’ sixth spot, choked to lose to Brunswick – and the mood lifted in the Tigers’ dressing room.
Their destiny is back in their own hands ahead of the do-or-die final round one-dayer against Coburg at the Coburg City Oval on Saturday.
“I was flat,” Dean said of his reaction before hearing the around-the-grounds scores.
“We gave it a good go and unfortunately we fell short. That possibly could’ve been our season over, thinking Ivanhoe was going to win.
“Once we found they’d lost, our spirits were back up and now we’ve got control of our fate. We’ve dodged a bit of a bullet this week.”
The equation is simple against Coburg – win and the Tigers are in, lose and they will miss the finals for the first time since 2011-12.
But the Burgers are a proud club boasting multiple former Premier Cricket players and won’t simply roll over.
“Just because we’re playing a lower side on the ladder doesn’t mean we’re going to waltz over there and knock them over,” Dean said.
“We’ve got to play well and win a game of cricket to progress through to the finals series and it’s going to be tough.”
Werribee could not gain momentum in chasing Roxburgh Park-Broadmeadows’ hefty total of 8-259 and were bowled out for just 220.
The top order fired with Matt Dean (51) and Tim O’Brien (49) leading the way, but the Falcons had answers for every challenge thrown down by the home side.
“We all batted well, we all batted time, but it was quite difficult to score fluently,” Dean said. “They bowled well and didn’t let us get away at any stage. We needed an extra 30 from someone out of that top order.”
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