Teenagers Jack Clifford and Alex Jennings guided the Eels to victory with an unbeaten 69-run sixth-wicket stand, building on the earlier work of Tyler Fowler (23) and Tommy Jackson (12).

Fowler and Jackson steadied the ship after the Eels’ shaky start. They had lost 3-8 as they chased 111.

Clifford (48 not out) and Jennings (19 not out) secured the points for Woodford in the Twenty20 match.

Woodford coach John Houston lauded the pair’s ability to stand up under pressure.

“From a coaching perspective, it’s gold, that contribution by those young blokes,” he said.

“We needed 41 off five overs and then we had a maiden, so it was 41 off four overs.

“They got it in 3.1 overs. There was some pretty good hitting by Jack Clifford and Alex got a few fours.”

It was a bitter pill for Nirranda to swallow as its lost its second close match in two weeks.

Knights coach Jason Mungean said his young line-up, featuring four under 17s players, simply didn’t put enough runs on the board.

“They’re a bit inexperienced. We just got bogged down and couldn’t turn the strike over enough,” he said.

Mungean said the Knights bowled well for the first 10 overs, but the sixth-wicket partnership, which had offered chances, was costly.

“We actually took a catch off a no ball,” he said.

“We’re just a young team. I think we’ll get better (and) we’ve got a couple of batsmen to come in. We expect a decent showing in the one-dayers.”

New recruit Jason Perera made an instant impact at Port Fairy, hitting 27 runs in an 89-run opening stand with Aaron Williams (54) as the Pirates chased down Allansford’s 105 with three overs to spare.

Strong partnerships guided Nestles to a 34-run win over Merrivale, with openers Kyle Humphrys (42) and Geoff Williams (26) setting the innings up, before Charlie Locke (24 not out) and Jake Hetherington (25 not out) ended the innings with a 61-run stand.

Isuru Yaddehige snared 4-18 as Russells Creek defended 6-108, bowling Wesley-CBC out for 74 in 15.1 overs. East Warrnambool-YCW fell 10 runs short in its chase of West Warrnambool’s 107, despite the best efforts of captain Mark Murphy, who made 49 runs.