Sefton eyeing up Country title treble
Tough toil in the field and positive, aggressive cricket earned maximum points for both Sefton and Greendale in the third round of the Country Premier two-day cricket competition.
Sefton made it three from three to finish top of their pool and will host Leeston-Southbridge in the semi-finals, while Weedons will be at home against Lincoln. The other four sides play off for the two-day plate.
Sefton spent a long day toiling in the field against South Malvern after declaring at 347/5 at the end of day one, with a lead of 226.
The one-day and T20 champions snared two early wickets but South Malvern batted well to recover to 192/6 at lunch, led by Mike Pauling (79) and James Ferris (73).
Jeff Chapman and Will Wright came out after lunch and scored freely putting South Malvern ahead and assuring Sefton would have to bat again.
Chapman continued scoring freely against the tiring Sefton attack before being removed for 87.
Matt Rowe bowled 18.3 overs and came away with 4/107 before South Malvern decided to make a game of it and push for an unlikely outright win with a declaration after 78.3 overs.
With an hour of play still to go and 132 runs ahead South Malvern had 16 overs to bowl before the end of play.
Sefton launched at the target, with Matt Laffey scoring a quick fire 45. South Malvern took three quick wickets and had a sniff of the win until Pat Croker came to the crease.
Croker’s lofty hitting took the game away as he belted 48 before departing just six runs short of victory.
Sefton won the match with an over to spare.
Greendale started their second innings one run behind LeestonSouthbridge on the first innings.
Riley Wilson (47) and Tig Dal- ley (38) pushed Greendale through to 150, setting the combined side exactly 150 to win. They never challenged the total.
Regan Dalley and Haigh Jebson both bowled superbly snaring three wickets and earning Greendale a 61-run victory.
Day two of the Weedons vs Southbrook match was washed out with a ball being bowled with Weedons taking the first innings points. The same story played out for Lincoln against OxfordRangiora.