A PLEA from Merrivale captain Luke Gannon has been heeded by his players with the Tigers first win of the season the reward.
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The Tigers defeated Wesley-CBC in a low-scoring Twenty20 game on Saturday at Allen Oval.
This came after an uninspired round one performance the previous week against Woodford.
“Last week our fielding and bowling was really ordinary,” Gannon said.
“I put it on the guys to redeem themselves and credit to them because that is what they were able to do.
“Against Woodford we bowled three or four overs worth of extras but this time the boys bowled one side of the wicket which made it a lot easier to defend.”
Wesley-CBC won the toss and sent Merrivale in to bat.
A tight Beavers bowling attack and a slow outfield made scoring at a rapid rate tough for the Tigers. Only Josh Stapleton (34) and Mark Jones (29) got going as Merrivale was bowled out for 112 in 17 overs.
“I thought a run a ball would be competitive,” Gannon said.
“But I knew Wesley-CBC had only scored 80 or 90 the week before so I thought we were still a chance.”
The Beavers were to lose only three wickets in their 20 overs but scoring runs at a winning rate proved out of their reach with Merrivale restricting them to 3-110.
James Walsh (41) and Joe Higgins (26 not out) were the best with the bat for Wesley-CBC.
Runs were much easier to come by in the game at Wenborn Oval between Nestles and Port Fairy. Nestles batted first and some brutal hitting from Kyle Humphrys (71) and Brett Eldridge (79) led them to a score of 4-214. Eldridge hit seven four and six sixes in his stay at the crease while Humphrys clubbed three fours and seven sixes.
Port Fairy opener Aaron Williams set his sights on running down the total with a rapid innings of 67 from 34 balls.
But the support didn’t come for Williams with the Pirates ending their 20 overs on 7-138.
East Warrnambool-YCW notched up its first win of the season with a seven-wicket victory over Allansford.
The Gators made 5-130, Chris Bant top scoring with an unbeaten 50.
In reply, Mark Murphy (56) and Joel Henry (58 not out) led a successful Broncos run chase of 3-132.
In other games, Russells Creek defeated Dennington by two runs, Woodford had a 27-run win over Brierly-Christ Church and West Warrnambool defeated Nirranda by one run.
Round three games set down for Sunday were called off due to wet weather.