Race opens for GCL final
The heavy downpour on Saturday night did not deter round three of Gippsland Cricket League, as matches went ahead as scheduled in the senior division with both games providing absolute heart stoppers.
With two rounds to go in the season it is still anyone’s game to reach the final, with a tight ladder reflecting a high standard of cricket across the associations.
In the encounter at Stratford between SaleMaffra and Bairnsdale, it was the hosts who emerged victorious in a down-to-the-wire thriller.
After electing to bat first after winning the toss, Bairnsdale never really got going and were dismissed for 130, which proved to be a tricky total to chase down as Sale-Maffra had to do it in the 36th over with just one wicket remaining.
Sitting at 9/114 it was left to the final pair of Stephen Parry and Jack Rietschel to get the remaining runs, which they were able to do with a collective sigh of relief heard by all wearing Sale-Maffra colours.
Jack Lind was the pick of the bowlers for Bairnsdale with a superb five wicket haul, while with the bat for Sale-Maffra it was only Cormac Hassett and David Atkinson with scores of 35 and 28 respectively that were able to make any significant contributions.
Wickets were shared between the SaleMaffra bowlers, with Stuart Anderson, Brad Scott and Ben Jones each taking two. But the day belonged to Parry, as he did his job taking 4/8 off 10 missilery overs to set up his moment in the sun that was to come later on with the bat.
The other match between Leongatha and Traralgon at Korumburra was also tightly contested, with the boys in green from Leongatha coming out on top.
Traralgon won the toss and elected to bowl, but found the going tough, as Leongatha adjusted to the conditions and had 49 on the board before the first wicket fell.
From there, Traralgon were able to peg back some momentum as the only two Leongatha bats to fire were Iian Osman and Captain David Newman with scores in the 40s.
Eventually, Leongatha closed at 6/161 in a forty-one over per side reduced game.
The only multiple wicket taker for Traralgon was Jackson McMahon who finished with 2/24.
In reply, Traralgon’s run chase was in complete disarray before drinks, as they crumbled to be 5/31 as the Leongatha boys could surely sense victory in sight.
However, some consolidation from John Keighran (25) and Ewan Williams (34) steadied the ship, before some late order hitting from former Zimbabwean test player Tinashe Panyangara, who scored an unbeaten 43 to take the game to the penultimate over where the equation required 12 runs for a Traralgon win off six balls.
Alas, Traralgon could only manage four off the last over, meaning Leongatha had survived a late scare and secured victory.
A trio of wicket takers for Leongatha highlighted their book, with openers Tom Richards and Alan Jenkins along with Tim Wightman all claiming three scalps. Warragul and District had the bye. Senior GCL will resume on Sunday, December 10 with the Wild Dogs requiring victory away to Sale-Maffra to remain in contention for the final.