Tara Murray
Another batting collapse brought to an end an up and down season for Werribee in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association north-west on Sunday.
Facing Spotswood in a rematch of last season’s grand final, the Tigers had both moments with the bat and ball, but weren’t able to put it all together.
Tigers captain Tim O’Brien said the result was a little bit disappointing.
“It’s disappointing after being in the position we were in early in the game,” he said. “We were a real chance and had another batting collapse.”
Spotswood batted first and at 5-112 the game was at a crucial part. A massive partnership between Declan O’Brien and Dan Schuppan turned the game back in favour of the Woodsmen.
Spotswood made 276 bowled out in the second last over.
Matthew Grose and Jonathan Burton took three wickets each.
O’Brien said had they been able to get one more wicket at that point it could have been a different story.
“Last time we played them we got them six down and were able to get them six down and then run through them.
“Had we got one more pretty quick wicket we could have broken through.”
The Tigers started day two with a strong partnership between Adam Alifraco (41) and Matthew Burton (74).
The pair put on 90 for the first wicket before the wickets started to fall, losing five quick wickets.
They struggled to get partnerships after that, bowled out for 190 in the 62nd over.
O’Brien said the openers had done a fantastic job to put them in a good position. He was full of praise for Burton, who has spent much of the season as the club’s second XI captain.
“He’s played a lot of second XI cricket and had a taste in the firsts last year,” he said.
“He was up for the challenge and showed balance at the crease. He showed everyone else how to do it and if a couple of others had batted like him it might have been a different result.”
A first round finals entry is the lowest the Tigers have finished in a number of seasons, having made the grand final the past four seasons.
O’Brien said they hadn’t quite reached the heights of the past few seasons.
“It was an up and down season,” he said. “There were games were experience got us over the line when it shouldn’t have.
“We played some good cricket throughout the year, but our batting let us down. We had a bit of a challenge with the bat as we saw yesterday [Sunday].
“In the two-dayers we did well, that was our only loss, but we lost to three teams outside the top six which is disappointing.
“We’ve won a premiership from fifth with this group, but we feel short with the bat and ball on the weekend.”
It isn’t all bad for the Tigers.
Their third and fourth XI sides will play off in grand finals this weekend. Their second XI will play in a semi final on the weekend to try and win a spot in the grand final.
