Kicking your feet up and celebrating victory just after 4pm is the definition of a perfect day for a cricketer.
Those days do not come around too often, but Werribee had that satisfaction on Saturday after a surprisingly quick dismantling of Moorabbin in a 138-run win in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association south-west group at Moorleigh Community Village Reserve.
The Tigers had readied themselves for a long and hot day in the field, but they exceeded their expectations in routing Moorabbin just after tea for 88.
Tigers skipper Tim O’Brien was pleased to have “rock and rolled them” early.
“We were pretty happy with today’s win because Moorabbin have been in pretty good form,” O’Brien said. “We treated it like a rehearsal for finals and how we want to take it, and the boys came out to play.
“We’ll take a lot of confidence out of it.”
Werribee posted 226 off 72.4 overs on the first day.
The Tigers’ bowlers ripped in early in the day to set the tone and Moorabbin’s hopes diminished fast.
“We knew the first hour was very important because their best players are at the top of their list,” O’Brien said.
“Their two openers [Romain Grenville and Vishva Wijeratne] are probably the key, they’re the ones who make the most of their runs, and Jono Burton got them out in his first two overs.
“We had them 2-5 with their best two batsmen in the sheds.
“They have three good batsmen and we had to get at least two of them out to put us in a good position and we did that pretty early.”
Burton was back to his best for Werribee.
Not even an interrupted preparation could stop him producing the tidy figures of 2-7 off 12 overs, including seven maidens.
“It was good to have Jono back,” O’Brien said. “He actually had a bit of a rough night before the game because his young fella was in hospital.”
Michael Kelly had a superb outing for Werribee. The spinner ripped through the middle and lower order to take 4-36 off 11.3 overs. Kelly claimed the key scalp of Karl Carver for 22.
O’Brien returned to bowling after a shoulder injury to claim 2-9 off four overs.
Bradley Apps provided the highlight of the day for Werribee with the run out of Calvyn Walker off his own bowling.
Werribee will square off with Oakleigh in a final round one-day game with the winner to claim second place in the finals. The Tigers enter the game on an eight-match winning streak.
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