WHILE he’s known as a spinner, Nick Robertson has no qualms about chopping and changing to get a result.
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The Nirranda all-rounder channeled frustration from a short-lived batting innings into his second innings bowling spell, dismissing Portland’s first six batsmen to claim a game-high wicket haul.
It inspired Warrnambool Blue to an outright victory on the second day of the under 17 country week carnival.
Warrnambool mentor Jason Mungean said a spread of contributors set up the triumph, but singled out Robertson’s effort and four wickets each to Liam Burgess and Patrick Drake as highlights.
“The first innings set it up for us. Bowling a team out for that doesn’t happen too often,” he said.
“I’ve done six or seven of these and this was definitely the best bowling performance I’ve seen for an entire day.
“Liam Burgess and Paddy Drake were tremendous and it was the same with Nick. We had a good spread of contributors.
“It was just line and length and the pitch, being fresh, did a little bit. We held good line and length and that got the result for us.”
Mungean, a long-time skipper at Nirranda, said his side was confident about its future prospects.
“A win on Thursday guarantees us a spot in the finals after a couple of good wins on the first two days,” he said.
“We just got over the line against South West on Tuesday but we’ve done well here (against Portland).”
Zavier ‘Norm’ Mungean was also serviceable, blasting 54 runs to help Blue to the outright.
The Nirranda wicketkeeper-batsman told The Standard he was pleased to be among the runs.
“We did a good job with the bat early on – everyone held their own and I had an alright knock, I guess,” Mungean said.
“It was good to get it under the belt.”
Mungean backed his teammates to “go far” in the week.
He also lauded Robertson’s bowling efforts.
“We have a good, solid team and I think we'll go far as a team,” he said.
“Nick bowled real well. For an off-spinner who bowled medium pace for the day, he did real well to get six wickets.”
Warrnambool Gold fell to Colac, failing to chase down a total of 153.
Gold coach Corey Couch said tight line and length made it tough for his men to score. Elsewhere, South West redeemed itself with a strong win over Hamilton at Merrivale.
In division two, both Warrnambool and Grassmere enjoyed success with victories in a three-team round-robin tournament with Colac.