By Tara Murray
A frustrating day for Hoppers Crossing ended in smiles as it progressed through to the second week of finals in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association south-west.
The Cats fought hard with the bat on Saturday to put a solid score on the board against Malvern.
Then heavy rain fell on Sunday morning putting day two at risk.
Play eventually started after 3pm and despite some few nervous moments, the game was declared a draw and the Cats moved through.
Cats captain-coach Simon Lambert said they were relieved to have done enough to get through to the next round.
“We thought we got the rough end in terms of conditions, with the pitch soft on day one,” he said.
“It was a bit of a rollercoaster that is for sure. As soon as it stopped raining, we knew that we would get out and play.”
Lambert said it was hard work with the bat early before some contributions from the lower order helped the side push to 223.
“Our lower order made a score with the bat and pushed it to 223,” he said. “For a long time we were looking at 150-180.
“We were rapt with how it turned out.”
Justin Goegan top scored with 35, while the bottom three batters all scored 28 or more to boost the score.
On Sunday, the rain stopped about 2pm and with the ground’s good drainage play was able to start after 3pm.
Lambert said he would have done the same thing as Malvern and pushed to get out there had he been in that situation.
Malvern made the most of it early on.
“It was going to be a tall order,” he said. “The ball ended up flying off the bat and we got into a spot of bother.
“The rain then came again.”
There was then a bit of confusion over how many overs were remaining once the match resumed.
Malvern thought it was 17, Hoppers Crossing thought it was seven.
The umpires agreed with the Cats and it left Malvern needing 100 off seven overs.
Malvern finished 5-176 off 29 overs with the match ending in a draw.
Brett Smith took three wickets for the Cats.
The Cats now face Oakleigh for a spot in the grand final.
With Oakleigh, which was the minor premier, losing in the first week of finals, the Cats are now the number one ranked team.
“They’ve had a couple of poor results and hopefully we can exploit that and win through to the grand final,” Lambert said.
“It’s the first time we’re hosting a semi final which is great for the club. If we could host a grand final, that would be really exciting.”
The Cats second XI also won through on the weekend, while their fourth XI will play off in a grand final this weekend.
