NYAH District moved just one win away from a spot in the Kookaburra Cup grand final, defeating RSL by five wickets.
Powerful all-rounder Joel Walsh continued his ominous form, reaching his second half-century in as many games, but the controlled bowling of the Demons’ young bowling attack proved the difference.
RSL’s Ryan Hinton (19) and Ben Hallam (46) produced a 52-run opening partnership.
However, Charlie Boulton (3/29), Cooper Andrews (2/20) and Max Thompson (0/13) made the most of their eight-over spells, restricting a dangerous batting line-up to 141.
Nyah District captain Ben Shadbolt was pleased with that period of play.
“They got the jump on us out of the blocks, but bringing Cooper into the attack probably changed the game a bit,” Shadbolt said.
“He will be the first to admit he probably didn’t bowl at his absolute best, but he still managed to get the job done and got the key breakthrough of ‘Ryno’ (Hinton) and his dismissal changed context of the game.
“After those first 10 overs we made some adjustments and were a little bit more consistent with our line and length, we just bowled to our fields and hit our lengths.
“I was really impressed with young Max Thompson, he hardly missed his length and was very hard to get away on that wicket, and Charlie bowled his eight and he was fantastic too.”
Once the first wicket fell, RSL scored just 89 more from the remaining 30 overs.
Brenton Caldwell (17) and Kynan Laursen (10) were the only other players to pass double figures for the home side.
Alex Wilson (2/32) was the only other wicket taker for the Demons.
Nyah District’s response was far from perfect, losing Mitchell Grinham (0) and Charlie Boulton (17) in the early overs to be 2/22.
Walsh (57) and Ash Thompson (11) started the rebuild, then Max Thompson (23) looked just as comfortable with the bat as the ball, helping the chase reach the target in the 24th over.
Hallam (3/32) and Pat Caldwell (2/18) did their best to keep their side in the match.
The Demons moved to outright second on the ladder, a game clear of the chasing pack and able to lock in a grand-final spot by beating Murrabit this Saturday.
RSL need to beat Wandella and hope other results go their way.
Shadbolt was glad the Demons’ destiny was in their own hands.
“We still have to win our last game against Murrabit and they’ve been putting some good scores on the board,” he said.
“We won’t be taking them lightly. They’ve shown that they are competitive in most of their games and having not played them before, it’s going to be a challenge.
“Saturday’s win will give us plenty of confidence, as it’s always a tough game when we play against RSL.
“They never give up easily and they fought pretty hard on Saturday, to score 140 on a pretty difficult wicket, we thought would be a challenging score, and to be honest they bowled pretty well, we just batted really well in the end.”
