Harper Sercombe
Woodend kept its Gisborne and District Association McIntyre Cup finals hopes alive on Saturday defeating Macedon in the second last round of the home and away season.
On day one, Woodend made 8-293 from 77 overs, before declaring to bowl a few overs at the Cats late in the day.
Andrew Cullen top scored with 85 at the top of the order for 85 before retiring.
Tim Berzins and Cameron Howlett took two wickets each for the Cats.
The Cats start with the bat wasn’t ideal with the side resuming at 2-19 on Saturday. Warren Else has both wickets for Woodend.
“We were pretty happy with that score, we batted pretty well,” Woodend coach Greg Matthews said after the match.
“We got a bit bogged down a little bit but credit to Macedon with their tight bowling at the time.
“But 293 is a pretty good score, it’s a big oval at Macedon and we always thought we were going to be in a reasonable position to win the match with that total on the board.”
With the ball, Matthews said he was pleased with the result but he would’ve liked to get through the wickets quicker, with Macedon batting out the 88 overs making 7-184.
William Bobetic top scored with 75 not out from 268 deliveries. Else was the main wicket taker with 3-36.
“We were pretty happy with the bowling innings, we were hoping to get through them a little bit quicker and perhaps put them back in or have a bat,” he said.
“We’re happy with the win obviously but it would have been nice to take the 10 wickets.
“We were able to take some early wickets and prevent them from getting away from us… and play the game on our terms.”
For Woodend to play finals they will need to knock off the undefeated Gisborne on Saturday and have the Sunbury Kangaroos lose to Sunbury United.
“We needed to keep winning,” Matthews said. “We’ve got a tough match coming up against Gisborne so it’ll be a good test.
“We’ll be going into it with nothing to lose really, we need to get that win to stay in finals contention so we’re looking forward to the challenge and hopefully things go our way.
“Anything can happen, it’s going to be a challenge but a challenge that we’re excited about because we feel like we’re on the way up as a club.”
In other results, the Kangaroos are coming off a loss against Gisborne.
Gisborne batted first and posted a massive first innings total of 342, being bowled out in the 79th over on day one.
The Kangaroos could only reach 261 before being bowled out with Corey Woolley top scoring with 103.
Gisborne then batted out the day making 3-105.
Romsey defeated Sunbury United in a thriller, winning by just one wicket.
The Bees had made 191 on day one and Romsey resumed at 0-6.
Romsey was bowled out for 197.
There was no result available for Rupertswood and Diggers Rest Bulla.
