Werribee has locked itself into the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association’s top six following its win over fellow finals side Spotswood.
After bowling last week, the Tigers were able to chase down the 192 set by Spotswood, getting a three wicket win, finishing on 7-196 after 87.5 overs.
Captain- coach Tim O’Brien said he is pleased his side is playing finals for another season.
“It was obviously a really important game to try and sew up a finals spot,” he said.
“It’s a really close competition. It was coming down to the wire so we had to just keep winning games of cricket and we’ve been able to do that which has been good.”
Michael Kelly was a clear standout for the Tigers bowlers, taking 6-63 from his 20 overs.
“Last week he bowled really well, he hit his areas and got early wickets for us and put them on the back foot,” O’Brien said.
‘They got into a bit of a partnership after tea and we were lucky we were able to break the partnership and get another three wickets very quickly to bowl them out. We really needed him to step up, the wicket suited spinners and he did a great job for us.
“They got off to a pretty solid start, so to have them six down at the tea break was really crucial. They played pretty well after tea when they batted, so when we broke that partnership we were able to knock them over and even more importantly we had to bat for 13 overs before stumps and we went through none down which really set us up for Saturday.”
In the chase, the Tigers were off to a great start, with opener Adam Alifraco top scoring with 54. However, a middle order collapse meant it was up to O’Brien and Kelly to take them from 7-134 to 196.
“I think we were only 2-114 at tea, and I said to the guys that they did really strongly after tea with the bat and we fell away so it’s something that we’ll have to work on, we lost 5-17 at one stage which was disappointing,” O’Brien said.
Next week Werribee will face Hoppers Crossing for the final round of the season where the winner will most likely make the top four.
‘We’ll just try and play our best cricket to try and get the win,” O’Brien said.
“We’d like to finish fourth and put ourselves in a position to maybe get a double chance but if we play our best cricket I’m sure we’ll be able to get a result.”
