Russells Creek captain-coach Cam Williams was in awe of teammate Craig Britten after the star quick produced a scarcely believable 13-wicket haul in the final round of the Warrnambool and District Cricket season.
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Britten finished with figures of 13-51 across both innings of the two-day fixture as the Creekers recorded a comprehensive 210-run outright win against Wesley Yambuk Titans on Saturday, March 3.
The win locked in fourth spot and a qualifying final berth for the victors, who finished runners-up last season.
Britten claimed 6-29 in the first innings before following up with the remarkable figures of 7-22 in the second.
He finishes the regular season as the competition's highest wicket-taker, with 44 at an average of 10.61.
"The stats don't do it justice on how well he bowled," Williams said of his strike bowler's feat.
"Getting that many wickets in one game is a credit to him. We were part of something pretty special out there.
"He's been really good at the start of the year, probably dropped off a little bit during the middle but now he's really hitting his straps. 44 wickets for the year is huge for himself and for our side, especially going into next week and hopefully go deep in a final."
On a difficult batting pitch, Creek number-five Rukshan Weerasinghe's first innings 98 was a standout, with Williams declaring it "worth 200 anywhere else".
Adam Doak also had a game to remember for the Creekers, snaring 6-30 for the match.
Williams was proud of his players for finishing top-four after an off-season exodus saw many people write the them off as contenders.
"It's one of those ones where people were talking that we wouldn't even make finals so for us to make finals and to be in contention is a great achievement for the group especially getting told we were going to be pretty bad this year," he said.
"I know internally what we've got, the 13 players that have rolled through division one this year have been great.
"We're hitting from at the right time of year. I've got belief in all the players."
Meanwhile, a first-innings loss to Dennington wasn't enough to strip Allansford Panmure of the minor premiership.
The Dogs outscored the Gators by 50 in their first innings however went on to narrowly miss out on finals by less than two points.
Port Fairy finished second, four-points behind the Gators, following a narrow two-run win against finals-bounded West Warrnambool, which came sixth.
Merrivale suffered a heavy first-innings defeat to Mortlake but will still play finals after snapping up fifth.
Nestles (third) also have a chance to go back-to-back, ending the home-and-away campaign with a convincing first-innings triumph against Northern Raiders (ninth).
Both Brierly-Christ Church campaign is also over despite handing North Warrnambool Eels (11th) a monster loss by an innings and 11 runs.
Matt Hughes
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
