Tigers’ power partnership
CLASSY bowling at the death and a stunning 105-run partnership scored Thomson its second win from three starts in its return to GCA2 action.
The Tigers were awarded victory against Highton in the rainaffected match that stretched into the evening, after scoring 6-181 off 45.2 overs in reply to the Heat’s 192 off 50.
Highton was cruising at 2-99 and then again at 4-170 before captain-coach Sam Stoneley (2-29) and off-spinner Suhas Jadhav (4-31) ripped through the tail to take the last six wickets for just 22 runs.
In reply, the Tigers were reduced to 2-36 before Matthew Featherstone (53) and Jayden Hicks (63) produced a triple-figure partnership to keep the visitors above the required run rate.
The result holds even more importance for the Tigers, given only one other match was completed this round.
“It was probably one of the best games of cricket we’ve been involved in over the last year and a bit,” Stoneley said.
“We were rapt to get the win. I didn’t think we’d get it. I thought we’d go close but I didn’t think we’d get over the line from the morning but as the day progressed, everything just seemed to go in our favour.”
Stoneley lauded Featherstone and Hicks for their third-wicket stand, with Featherstone’s one six and eight fours critical to staying above the running target.
It was also Hicks’s first match of the season after he was listed as an ‘out’ pre-season because of police academy commitments.
“It was a game-winning partnership by an absolute mile,” he said.
“I think they put on 105 and batted absolutely superbly, just batted Highton out of the game pretty much. With the reduction of overs, we had to make sure we were above the run rate of 3.86 at 25 overs, and after that we had to be above it, so they just took it upon themselves to make sure we were above the run rate.”
Luke Daffy was Highton’s best with 43 and 2-29.
With ladder-leader Murgheboluc sharing the points with Bell Park, Thomson moved to second on the table with 12 points, three off the Frogs.
The Tigers clash with the fifth-placed Dragons in a onedayer this Saturday, with the loser likely to drop out of the four.