Wild Dogs gallant in Country Week final

Warragul District Cricket Association finished runner up to neighbour West Gippsland in division three of country week cricket following a thrilling final.

The Wild Dogs defeated Colac, Central Gippsland and Wangaratta during the week to advance to Friday’s final at Preston City Oval against West Gippsland, who also entered the final undefeated.

The Wild Dogs won the toss and elected to bat, but lost Fraser Duncan early.

Gamini Kumara, Rhys Holdsworth, Sam Batson, Trevor Gardiner and Damon Healy all made starts but couldn’t push on to that elusive big score, with regular wickets to West Gippsland restricting Warragul to 143.

Matthew Hutchinson set the tone early for West Gippsland, returning the miserly figures of 2/26 from his 10 overs which were bowled up front.

In a similar vein, Hutchinson opened the batting for West Gippsland and scored an enterprising 17 to get his team off to a fast start.

Mark Cooper and Robert Elston helped West Gippsland to build a solid foundation, but three wickets to Sam Batson (3/26 from 10 overs) through the middle overs put Warragul back into the contest.

Aaron Avery found some support from the lower order to take the game deep.

Still with five runs to get, the Wild Dogs had tailender Scott Clark on strike and were confident of getting the breakthrough required.

However Clark managed to eke out a squirty single, with Avery taking strike and blasting a boundary to win the game.

Earlier in the week, the Wild Dogs began their campaign well with victory over Colac at Camberwell.

Batson scored a rapid half century (52 from 57 balls) and backed up by starts to Kumara (40), Holdsworth (23), Luke Radford (31) and Healy (28), helped the Wild Dogs post 201.

Colac managed 161 in reply, with Batson starring with 5/26.

Batting for a second time, Warragul lost Kumara and Radford early before Holdsworth (a run a ball 19) and Healy (24 from just seven balls) combined to help the Wild Dogs to 2/55 from seven overs.

Warragul were far too strong for Gippsland Cricket League Gippsland on day two.

Sending their opposition in at Brunswick, the Wild Dogs routed Central Gippsland for 80, with captain Rory Hare the only bat to show resistance with 33.

Kumara and Radford did the damage with the new ball, finishing with four and three wickets respectively.

Batson and Radford got starts, with the Wild Dogs passing the total for the loss of five wickets. Ryan Williams scored 55 from 49 balls down the order to boost Warragul’s total to 9/182.

Following a third-round bye, another strong performance with the ball allowed Warragul to account for Wangaratta at Greenvale to advance to the final.

Radford (3/13 from 10 overs) and Toby Codd (4/18 from 10 overs) were particularly miserly as they helped to bowl Wangaratta out for 114.

The Wild Dogs lost early wickets in reply, but a measured 40 from Duncan put Warragul within reach of the target.

Batson took advantage of the solid platform to blast 122 from 109 balls. He was supported by Gardiner, who scored an unbeaten 52 to see the Wild Dogs post 8/273. rivals Central