Jindivick take the ascendency

Kangas hard to beat

Hallora 3/80 v Neerim District 65 Hallora has proven why they are unbelievably difficult to beat at home, crushing Neerim on day one of their clash.

Neerim won the toss and elected to bat on a relatively tricky wicket, a decision they would regret quickly as Nathan Bayne was removed nicking first ball of the innings.

Sam Whibley (5-24) continued this form onto the rest of the top order as he removed Rhys George (0), Jack Ward (7), Bailey George (0) and Ash Lockett (7) in quick succession to leave Neerim 6-15 and Whibley with five wickets in the first hour of the match.

Ash Causey (3-9) and Malinga Surappulige (2-15) ravaged the rest of the batting line-upas 6-15 quickly became 9/40 before the Stags, through a defiant Aaron Fawcett (23) and tailender Matt Kelliher (7*), managed to crawl their way to 65 all out at tea.

This score was simply never going to be enough however to Neerim’s credit they fought hard in the field creating two run-outs, including both openers Dave Macdermid (4) and Sam Whibley (19), to reduce Hallora to 334.

Brett Williams (28*) and James Vela (17*) showed their class for the rest of the day, closing out the win and setting themselves up for a tilt at the outright victory next week as they closed the day at 3-80.

Buln set imposing score

Yarragon v Buln Buln 236 Buln Buln has shown why their batting prowess earnt them last year’s premiership, as they set an imposing score of 236 away to Yarragon.

Having been sent in by the Panthers, Buln were hoping to make them pay and that they did.

And despite losing Wilson Pollock (8) and Jeff Walsh (18) relatively early in the piece, the in-form Jack Armour and Brent Eastwell combined to put the pressure on the Yarragon attack.

The pair pushed the score to 159, before Eastwell fell for a well-compiled 64, as Daminda Rajapakshalage (2-41) claimed his second victim of the day.

Armour (70) fell soon after, run out by Nuwan Perera, before Ryan Bishop used his promotion to full effect as he hit a boundaryladen 40.

As the remaining overs dwindled the Lyrebirds collapsed somewhat, as Nuwan Perera (4-73) and Layton Smith (2-69) showed some good death bowling skills to keep the score below 250 and keep themselves alive in this crucial encounter, with the last six wickets falling for just 24 runs.

Yarragon are going to need the likes of coach Gamini Kumara to fire with the bat next week if they are to stand a realistic chance of an upset.