Tara Murray
Westmeadows timed its run chase to perfection in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division on Saturday.
Facing Keilor, with both teams searching for their first win of the season, it was the Warriors that got there with four balls remaining.
Chasing 8-221, the Warriors finished 8-222.
Captain-coach Donovan Pell said it was a real hard fought win.
“It was a tough one and a bit dicey early,” he said. “We knew that we had to take our time for the first 20-40 overs.
“We always thought the pitch would be good in the second half of the time. We timed it to perfection.”
Pell said the bowling group had done a good job one day one and they thought 220 was under par on a good wicket.
He said getting 222 on a hard wicket was really good.
It was Pell that was the guiding hand in the innings, finishing 104 not out.
He said it was nice to get some runs on the board.
“The game before I got a golden duck against Airport West,” he said. “I was feeling like I hadn’t batted for five weeks with how the competition is structured with two-dayers.
“It was good to get some runs.”
Pell said their batting line up was yet to hit their straps which a positive sign for the side.
They’ve passed 200 all three times they’ve batted, but haven’t had a spread of contributors in every year.
On Saturday, Pawan Wickramasinghe was the next highest scorer with 27 behind Pell.
“We’ve batted nowhere near our potential,” he said. “There’s still much more to come out of the top seven.”
Now with a win on the board, the Warriors have a couple of big matches coming up.
They face St Albans, which also has one win, and a winless Sunshine United in their next two games.
“They are teams around us,” he said. “They are a couple of pretty important matches for us.”
In other matches. Craigieburn avoided an outright loss against Deer Park.
Resuming at 3-21 in reply to 9-299, the Eagles were bowled out for 154.
Adam Davies top scored with 55.
The Eagles were then sent back in and were 8-87 at stumps having survived 10 overs late.
