Rosella bowlers break through

LETHBRIDGE has continued its fine early season form, dismissing Winchelsea for 184 at Stephenson Street Oval.

Opening batsman Matthew Partridge (46) looked promising early, placing his team in a solid position of 1-91.

A quick loss of wickets prevented the visitors from gaining any sort of momentum though, and the Rosella bowling depth showed late in the afternoon.

Captain-coach Brett Harding was excellent in his second spell and finished the day with 3-32.

His most important scalp was middle- order batsman Tom Stephenson, whose calm 33 was made amid a collapse that lost Winchelsea its last seven wickets for just 42 runs. But Harding was quick to deflect his own efforts, praising new-ball pair Conner Dillon and Paul Stewart.

‘‘Our two openers really set us up today. But as a team, we felt we bowled a really consistent line and length all day and we’ve restricted them to a fairly reasonable score on a small ground,’’ he said.

Observing that the outfield was slow, Lachlan Hill decided to take the aerial route to speed up the run-scoring process, but his innings was short-lived.

Harding was confident the Rosellas could chase down the 180 remaining runs for victory.

‘‘Obviously a lot depends on their bowling, but we think the target is very gettable,’’ he said.