Mernda got its first win of the season in Diamond Valley Cricket’s Barclay Shield on Saturday.
They reached a target of 163 with three wickets and five overs to spare to beat Bundoora United at Waterview Reserve South.
The result eased the pressure on Mernda in the club’s first season back in the top division.
“It’s been pretty tough but it’s also been a good start,” coach Jamie Davis said.
“It hasn’t been too big a step up in competition … [but] having a couple of players out with injury has made it harder.
“The challenge is there and if we play our best we can be competitive in this competition.”
Mernda’s win over Bundoora followed two first-innings losses and an outright loss.
“We were pretty confident that if we executed what we talked about we could get the job done,” Davis said.
“We batted well and batted for time, which we haven’t been able to do so far this season. We were 0-80 before we lost a couple of wickets in the middle of the innings.
“It’s always good to start like that and makes it difficult for the bowlers looking down at a score of 0-80.”
Ashley Williams top-scored with 41, while fellow opener Callum Dean made 25.
Davis said the performance with the bat backed up the bowling performance on day one of the match the week before.
“Our batting and bowling were the best since last year,” Davis said.
“It’s a good start to the game. We won the toss and elected to bowl which doesn’t happen often.
“We thought we’d back ourselves and we’d have been happy to restrict them to 140 or 150.”
This week, Mernda plays Bundoora, who lost to Riverside on Saturday.
Chasing just 121, Bundoora was bowled out for 103, with only three players reaching double figures.
Like Mernda, they’ve only won one match for the year.
In other matches, Epping lost outright to Macleod, its first defeat of the season.
After making just 52 in its first innings on day one, Epping had already conceded first-innings points after Macleod made 97.
Epping made 136 in the second innings, leaving Macleod with a target of 92 for the outright.
They finished on 5-93, on the back of an unbeaten 41 by opener Richard Johnson.
The match between Research Eltham Collegians and Rosanna finished in a tie after both made 224.
In other matches, Diamond Creek beat Old Paradians/St Francis and Lower Eltham beat Plenty.
