Waves mentor John Houston said his group - who made 124 from 48.3 overs before Central Highlands raced it down in 25 overs - needed to back in their strengths.

"We probably got bogged down early and our strike rates were a bit lower than what we'd like," he said of the loss.

"Having said that, they bowled well, but we weren't aggressive enough against the spinners. We understand it's a learning process and unfortunately under the spotlight we didn't perform how we'd like.

"A lack of games probably hurt, we've played three games max, but it's an excuse, we have to find a way to get better and show what we're made of and capable of.

"We just didn't bat well enough, we need to be aggressive and not let spin dictate and we didn't quite have the confidence to take it on."

Warrnambool and District youngsters Toby Madden (17), Matthew Gome (15) and Sam Allen (15) showed some promising signs with the bat.

Gun Highlanders youngster Lachlan Hay was the star with a classy 79 not out, backing up the 82 he made playing Victorian Premier Cricket thirds for Footscray on Saturday.

"They've (Central Highlands) got a bit of cricket under their belt and Hay looked like a good cricketer - we tried hard but didn't have the runs on the board in the end to put on any pressure early," Houston said.

The Western Waves will look to quickly bounce back after the loss when it hosts the Suns at City Oval in Horsham on Sunday, December 4.

In other representative cricket in the region on Sunday, the South West Cricket Hudson Shield team enjoyed a comprehensive win against Portland District at Henty Park.

The South West team - led by Heytesbury Rebels skipper Simon Harkness - won by nine wickets.

The game was set-up with three early wickets which dented Portland's chances of a strong total, eventually crawling to 158 off the back of skipper Luke Evans (64).

Jordan Riches (3-23) made the ball talk with a class spell of bowling for South West.

Despite losing gun Sri Lankan Tharindu Rukshan for 14, Harkness (56 not out) and Tom Place (73 not out) made light work of the chase, finding the runs in the 32^nd over.

South West takes on Warrnambool District on Sunday, December 4 at Camperdown's Lakes Recreation Reserve in round two of the Hudson Shield.

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