Winchelsea just falls short of outright win
WINCHELSEA’S bid to grab an outright win over Newcomb fell agonisingly short with the second-placed side left two wickets short of taking all 10 points.
Still reeling after a horrid batting collapse last round against ladder leader Queenscliff, Mitchell Troy’s men were eager to snare the extra points to help close the gap in the battle for top spot.
“I don’t think they (Newcomb) expected to bat again but we wanted the 10 points after the mishap against Queenscliff and we’ve got 12 points to make up to try and get top spot so we wanted to have a go,” Troy said.
Winchelsea resumed the day on 2-22 and Marc Carson led the way with the bat scoring an eventful 96 in the push for quick runs.
Carson’s innings followed the century he scored against Newcomb in their last encounter, taking his runs tally to 299 for the season — the most in the competition.
“I’ll be a little critical of him — he was very scratchy early,” Troy said.
“When he was on 40 he shouldn’t have been playing and missing as much as he did but he knew how we wanted to bat and he batted really well.”
With a considerable first innings lead of 109, Troy threw the new ball to his openers and youngster Riley Berg didn’t disappoint. He followed up on his three wickets in the first innings as well as a handy 31 with the bat to rip through the Newcomb top order with a sparkling 4-14.
“He’s (Berg) just improving every week. Being a 17-year old kid, he’s really coming along which is a real positive for us,” Troy said. “He’s one of my go-to men. He’s only a kid so you’ve got to make sure he’s learning and enjoying his cricket.”