Lancefield returned to the winners’ list and the Gisborne and District Cricket Association’s B-grade top four with a massive win against Ashfield on Saturday.
Having made 247 on day one of the match, the Tigers entered day two confident about getting their third win of the season.
The bowlers did their jobs, making runs hard to come by – and with that, wickets fell.
In the Tigers’ most even performance of the season, they bowled Ashfield out for 108.
Tigers coach Luke Barker was pleased.
“It was a really good team effort,” he said. “We really set it up on day one of the match, with 247 a really good score.”
Matthew Bowden took 7-32.
Barker said Bowden was the first to admit he had been struggling this season.
“He’s a good bowler, but he had been struggling a bit. Once he got on a roll, he kept going and the wickets started to flow.”
The Tigers were 3-21 in their second innings at the end of the match.
Barker said the win was good for players who had lost their past two games. He said despite not getting the results, they were a more consistent side than 12 months ago.
“We hadn’t been playing bad cricket – we just weren’t taking our chances,” he said.
“We are, though, a lot more consistent, especially with our batting. We made 220 last game and no one made 50.
“This match we had four or five guys at least get 20.”
The win moves the Tigers back into the top four in what is again looking to be a close competition.
Barker knows every run and wicket is crucial at this stage.
“Later in the season, we’ll hopefully benefit from bonus points,” he said.
“Even yesterday, Wallan, which was undefeated, lost to Macedon … there’s only one game separating first to sixth.
“The next two rounds we play St Anthonys and Sunbury United. In an ideal world, we would win both games and it will set up our season.
“If we lose both, it’ll be hard to come back from.”
The Tigers will be boosted by the return of Luke and Nathan Malone.
In other matches, Macedon caused an upset by beating the previously undefeated Wallan. Defending 211, Macedon bowled Wallan out for 101. Oliver Clough took 5-59. Macedon was 7-89 in its second innings.
Sunbury United chased down St Anthonys’ 244 with ease on the back of a century to Lance Watts.
East Sunbury avoided an outright defeat against Bacchus Marsh.
