Rupertswood is in the box seat as it chases victory against St Anthonys in the Gisborne and District Cricket Association B-grade grand final.
Having put runs on the board on the first day and a half, Rupertswood is only five wickets from taking first innings points and with them, likely, the premiership.
Rupertswood skipper John Lane said the decision to bat after winning the toss was a no-brainer, despite a slow outfield.
“You are always going to bat first in a grand final,” he said.
“It’s cricket 101 to have the runs on the board; each run is almost worth one and half.
“Overnight we were in a pretty good position to launch to 250, 260, but we lost three for 30 early on day two.
“The tail has been good all year but it didn’t pay off early on the second day … though 10 and 11 hung around and put on a bonus 20 or 30.”
Rupertswood was bowled out for 211, Kyahl Anderson top-scoring with 76.
“We had a day and a half to bat,” Lane said. “We had to work really hard for it. I was rapt with how everyone batted – no one really threw their wicket away despite there being a few cheap dismissals.
“Mark Ryan faced more than 120 balls for his 20 runs and it really set us up for a 200-plus score.”
Lane said his players were confident of restricting St Anthonys even before the run chase started.
“It’s a tough ground to chase runs on,” he said. “I don’t think any side has chased down 200 here all season in B grade.”
Rupertswood enjoyed a perfect start with the ball, having St Anthonys in trouble at 3-7. St Anthonys finished day two at 5-80 and still 132 runs from victory.
“St Anthonys are a good bunch of boys to play against … they sort of live by the sword,” Lane said.
“Sometimes it comes off and it really could have, considering our attack is reasonably slow.
“Lucas [Alaimo], their ’keeper, kept them in the game.
“He dug deep and did the right thing in shutting the game down to give his side a chance next week.
“There’s a lot of pressure on these guys to bat through next week. Last time we went through them for 110.”
Karl Sutherland claimed two wickets, while Aaron Forward, Lachlan McLean and Brandon Webber took one each.
