On a scorching 40-degree Saturday, West and South took to the field at Jubilee Oval, with West claiming a 34-run victory to strengthen their hold on top spot with just a few weeks left in the regular season.
West won the toss and elected to bat first, which proved a little costly as the first wicket fell early, Adam Perry (0 off three) caught off the bowling of Ben Franklyn.
Tom Burke added 16 runs to his tally before being bowled, ahead of a 36-run partnership between Peter Christos (31 not out off 50) and Max Everuss (21 off 21). Lachlan Harvey made 20 off 14 before being run out, as West made their way to 5/101 off 20 overs.
In reply, South were led by opening batter Paul Nicholas (21 off 18) but fell to 6/25 before the halfway point. Jawaid Minhas (16 off 19) and Peter Morgan (17 off 24) allowed the score to tick along further, but the equation proved too much for South as West bowler Laurence Hebbard claimed a few scalps, finishing with figures of 3/7 from his four overs.
“Unfortunately we had to field first, which is always a challenge when it’s 40 degrees. We started pretty good again, same as last week when we played them,” South’s captain, Matthew Gray, said.
“This weekend, we actually took a couple of early wickets, which sometimes can be a bit of a detriment against West because they have a good batting lineup and tend to have their better batters in at four and five, so they just steadied the ship.
“But we just fell short again, West played really well and the key message to the group after the game from me personally was just to not be too down about losing the last couple of weeks, because we’ve been right in the contest for most of the game.
“The message was to build on the good things that we’ve taken out of the last couple of weeks. We’ve bowled really well, we’ve fielded well in patches, we just need to make some more runs together as a team and build a few more partnerships with the bat.
“We’ve got a big week ahead of us against Central where we can still make finals if we knock them off a couple of times going into the backend of the year. I think we could really push Central and hopefully make our way into a semi-final and we never know, never know what can happen on the day.”
It’s a top-of-the-table clash next weekend as West take on Central at Jubilee Oval, while at Alma Oval, South and Central do battle, with both games scheduled for 11:30am on Saturday, February 4.
