Craigieburn was one of the rare teams to get on the pitch in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association on Saturday, and made the most of it.
Just four first XI matches across the competition finished with a winner and most of them came after results from day one.
Craigieburn and Werribee Centrals managed to avoid the worst of the rain and wind on Saturday, with Craigieburn handling the conditions the better.
Craigieburn vice-captain Nathan Pappin said like most areas there were showers all day, but they were lucky they weren’t for long out in Werribee.
“Once you got the covers on they were gone and you could play again,” he said.
“There were four or five showers and we played through them as they didn’t last long.”
Having made 206 on day one of the match, Craigieburn was in the box seat heading into day two.
“With a slow out field and a big oval we thought our score was above par,” Pappin said.
“We thought we could stop them.”
Craigieburn skittled Centrals for just 73 to secure the win.
Centrals put on a first wicket partnership of 18, but it started to go wrong after that.
Losing 5-10, Centrals crumbled to 5-28.
It was soon 8-41. The last two wicket partnerships had a bit of fight in them, but they were never going to get close.
Centrals were bowled out for just 73. Michael Bury was best of the bowlers, taking three wickets.
“The bowlers did a good job,” said Pappin.
“Once the wicket flattens out we knew it wouldn’t be easy to get wickets. It was a real team effort which got us across the line.”
Craigieburn sent Centrals back in on the hunt for an outright victory.
Having already secured victory when most other teams hadn’t even got on the park, an outright victory would have helped set up the season.
It wasn’t to be with Centrals showing more fight. They were 3-74 when stumps were called.
Sikander Sharma took all three wickets.
Pappin said it was important to get early wins as they looked to return to finals.
He said most of last year’s side had returned, with the addition of Ali Kathawala .
“Ali made his club debut in this match,” Pappin said.
“He batted at number three and he did a brilliant job.
“He moved over from Pakistan in the offseason and moved to Craigieburn. He got in touch with the club about playing.”
It proved to be a good weekend for Craigieburn with its second side also getting the win having secured first innings points on day one of the match.
In senior division, Tullamarine was the big loser having conceded first innings points on day one of its match against Yarraville Club.
All other matches in that division finished in a draw after no play could get underway on Saturday.
