WOORINEN have booked their place in this season’s Kookaburra Cup grand final against Nyah District following a dominant eight-wicket win over RSL at the weekend.
Needing to win to leapfrog the Blues into next month’s one-day competition decider, the Tigers made the perfect start dismissing veteran opener Brenton Caldwell without scoring and quickly having RSL in trouble at 4/21.
A 36-run fifth wicket partnership between Patrick Caldwell (30) and Stuart Patterson (11) threatened to put a spanner in the works for Woorinen, however both were dismissed by Lachlan Rushton within a matter of overs, with the Blues lower order offering little resistance as they were eventually bowled out in 37th over for 98.
Having dominated recent games with the bat, it was the bowlers’ turn to get Woorinen over the line, according to their captain Dean Morpeth.
“We played really well and we bowled really well, ‘Rushy’ (Robert Rush) was amazing and bowled the best spell I’ve seen him bowl for three years,” Morpeth said.
“It was fast, (Rush) was swinging it and he bowled full, he was really, really good.
“He led our attack and put them under so much pressure and when you have Guri (Singh) at the other end keeping things pretty tight they can be a powerful combination.
“All the bowlers bowled well, including young Jackson Hughes, who bowled his leg spin and bowled really well, but it was really off the back of ‘Rushy’ and his performance.
“We put them under pressure early and got a few early wickets and even though ‘Patto’ (Patterson) and ‘Patty’ (Caldwell) settled their innings down and batted for a few overs, we were able to get on a roll again.
“With that said, I was impressed by young Sam Brown for (RSL), I thought he showed a fair bit and stuck around and showed good character.”
The Tigers made light work of the run chase, with Sanket Mehta (52) and Jackson Hughes (16) putting on 75 runs for the opening partnership, before Darren Rushton (10 not out) and Mitchell Uhlhorn (12 not out) finished the job.
The win sees Woorinen secure their remaining spot in this season’s Kookaburra Cup grand final, with Morpeth looking forward to not only being a part of the one-day final in January, but the McDonald’s T20 competition, which gets under way this weekend.
“It’s exciting for us, there isn’t a lot of premiership success in this playing group, there are quite a few new faces for us, and I think exposing them to big games is important for their development,” Morpeth said.
“It’s exciting for them and we’re very happy to be part of it when it comes around next year.
“The T20 format got us going a bit last year, so hopefully it can do the same again.
“It’s all going well for us at the moment, even with the bat on the weekend, we passed (RSL) two down and Sanket (Mehta) made a half-century and batted really well.
“(Mehta) is a new guy to the club and he hadn’t really been given an opportunity, he’d been batting down the lower order and we decided to give him a shot up the top and he went out and batted quite well.”
Despite missing out on a place in the Kookaburra Cup grand final, RSL remain in the top four heading into the T20 competition, with the Blues joined by Barham Koondrook with a three-win, three-loss record from the one-day fixtures.
