Werribee maintained its unbeaten start to the Sub District Cricket season at the weekend, outplaying Yarraville in a twilight T20 clash.
Werribee, on the road, was strong with the ball and even stronger with the bat as it ran down the hosts’ 3-144 with ease, losing just two wickets and having four balls to spare.
It was a win that pleased Werribee captain Tim O’Brien.
“T20s are always interesting; they can go either way on the day,” O’Brien said.
“It’s always a pretty good ground for batting on at Yarraville so it was perfect T20 conditions. And with two good batting sides it was always going to be a good game; it turned out that way.”
The home side won the toss and took the first chance to use the pitch and fast outfield, with openers Matthew Love (36) and Matthew Harrison (49) putting on 70 for the opening wicket as Werribee struggled to contain them.
The introduction of James Freeman (1-9) to the Werribee attack broke the deadlock as he removed Love in his solitary over to get Werribee rolling, and when Michael Kelly dismissed Joshua Hahnel cheaply soon after the visitors were back in the contest.
O’Brien (1-15) grabbed a wicket for himself as the hosts continued on to a competitive score, but the visiting captain said he always felt confident of running it down.
“I was pretty happy with our bowling,” O’Brien added.
“We didn’t concede many boundaries early, and they have two class players at the top of the order so we were happy to keep them to about a par score.
“We always felt comfortable in the chase, but anything can happen in T20.”
The chase started badly for Werribee with the captain departing without troubling the scorers, but the combination of Freeman (66) and Matthew Dean (62 not out) steadied the ship and set them on the path to victory.
Together, they added 111 before Freeman was trapped in front, leaving Dean and Shaun Dean (15 not out) to guide the visitors home early in the final over.
“Those two boys at the top batted brilliantly together,” O’Brien said.
“Jim [Freeman] hasn’t had a hit for a couple of weeks after missing last game, and he just came out and played his natural game and struck the ball beautifully.
“And Matty just continued where he left off last week when he made 80, so he’s in some good form at the moment.”
The win keeps Werribee unbeaten to start the north-west season, joining Altona and Balwyn as the only sides without a loss.
