Grovedale strengthened its position in the Geelong Cricket Association Division 1 top four with a high-scoring win against East Belmont at Winter Reserve on Saturday January 11.
Almost 600 runs were scored for the day with the Tigers doing most things right to stay in third spot 8.8 points clear of fifth placed St Peters.
Grovedale skipper Jordan Moran won the toss and batted first and made a nice 52 from 66 deliveries.
Corey Paull was elevated to number five and made an important 33 from 54 balls before Jack Wrigglesworth (68 from 64) and Josh Windus (64 not out from 53) finished off the innings at 6/291 from 50 overs.
“They (Wrigglesworth and Windus) closed the game out really well,” Moran said.
“Jack was scheduled to come in at five and then after losing that early wicket I brought Corey up the order just to, I suppose, protect our hitting late in the innings. We were fortunate enough for it to pay it off.
“Corey made a good contribution there in the middle and Wriggles and Windus were able to do their thing in the last 20 overs, which is I suppose what our blueprint was.”
East Belmont’s Dylan Moroney was miserly early and finished with 3/33 from 10 overs.
“He bowled really hard lengths and bowled really well throughout the day,” Moran said.
“His figures don’t show how good his bowling really was. I think he had three for six after seven overs. It’s just those last three overs that got away from him a little bit when we were throwing the willow.
“He bowled that nagging length that was doing a little bit off the seam.”
East Belmont gave the run chase a decent effort, but fell short, being all out for 273 in the 50th over.
Shane McNamara (63 off 62 balls), Danny Hegarty (63 off 55), Lachlan Inglis (52 off 39) and Zak Tribe (48 from 74) all got runs, but the team probably needed one of them to get three figures.
Grovedale was in control for pretty much the entire innings.
“Once we got Shane (out), I was a little bit more comfortable,” Moran said.
“He’s such a class bat. And while Zak Tribe was playing some nice shots, there were lots of dots that we were able to build up on him. So once it got up to sevens and eights quite early in the innings, I always felt that we were ahead of the game and that it would have taken something pretty remarkable from them to get over the line.”
Spinner Rohan Smith took 2/34 from 10 tidy overs and part-timer Rob Smith claimed three late wickets for the Tigers. Smith conceded 11 from his first over, but recovered in fine style.
“To bowl his next nine overs for 20 runs, I said to the guys after the game ‘that’s probably the game there’ and those nine overs, that’s probably what won us the game,” Moran said.
Grovedale’s next task is the top of the ladder Newtown & Chilwell, but it will be without Michael McNeel and Windus.
“I’m not overly concerned,” Moran said.
“But they are two good cricketers that will be missing. What it does is provide opportunities for other guys.”
ST JOSEPH’S won a thriller by one wicket against Highton. Jack Cook (64) and Greg Willows (51) got runs in Highton’s total 202. Tom Smith bowled superbly and deserved his five-wicket haul for Joeys. Jonathon Casey made 62 and Jack Hodgson was 47 not out as Joeys passed the total with one wicket in hand. Promising leg-spinner Fionn Neeson picked up three wickets for the Heat as did Brady Somers.
NEWTOWN & Chilwell crushed South Barwon by eight wickets with Nick Burke and Noah Guida each taking three wickets. The Two Blues hit the required 138 for victory, losing just two wickets in the process.
NORTH Geelong made 8/265 against St Peters with Ned Cooper (63) and Tom Mathieson (56 not out off 33 balls) making half-centuries. In reply, St Peters made 178 with Will Ford (51) top scoring, but the day belonged to Mathieson, who took 6/27 from 10 overs in a three-vote display.
