WOORINEN have put themselves firmly in the race for a place in this year’s Kookaburra Cup with a commanding win over reigning premiers Nyah District on Saturday.
After being set a mammoth run chase of 207, the Tigers pounded their way to victory over the previously unbeaten Demons thanks to an emphatic 72 from skipper Dean Morpeth and an equally impressive 70 not out from Darren Rushton.
The pair produced a 90-run partnership for the second wicket at better than a run a ball, with Nyah District at times seemingly having no answer for Morpeth’s power hitting.
The win lifted Woorinen to outright third on the SHDCA ladder to sit just one win behind Nyah District and Barham Koondrook, with the Demons’ superior percentage keeping them on top.
It was an important result for the Tigers, according to Morpeth, with his team’s aggressive batting paying off in the high-scoring contest.
“It was a good game of cricket to be a part of, there were 400-plus runs scored, there were good innings from both sides, good bowling performances, it was just an all-round good game of cricket,” Morpeth said.
“Importantly for us, we’ve struggled to this point of the season, so it was good to get some runs and get the win.
“It shows the importance of spending some time at the crease and putting a bit more value on our wicket, and realising we need to work a bit harder to get the results as we haven’t shown enough with our batting application so far this season.
“The win was great and we’ll take confidence from it, but we have Barham Koondrook next week and although we’ve proven we can perform, the challenge is how do we become consistent.
“That’s what I’ll be pushing our guys on, how do we play at that level every week and how do we start to string some wins together.
“We’ll take a lot of positives out of Saturday’s game and it’s always good to have a win when there’s 400 runs scored.”
Although Woorinen secured the much-needed six points, they didn’t have things all their own way, with the Demons posting a massive chase of 7/207 from their 40 overs.
Young all-rounder Max Thompson was the mainstay for the Demons, with the 15-year-old posting his highest A Grade score with 75 off 68 balls, complemented by strong contributions from Dean Harrop (49 off 72 balls) and Jacob Lister (28 off 39 balls).
“It was a good battle, (Nyah District) have a great batting line-up that’s full of good batters, so to get the result was huge for our team,” Morpeth said.
“I had to explain to our players that when you play a team of that quality, there’s no break, the next batter comes in and they are just as good as the one you dismissed.
“Young ‘Thommo’ (Thompson), he’s a seriously good bat, he struck the ball late and was clean with his hitting and Dean (Harrop) supported him really well.
“It was a good challenge for us and we felt like we were bowling reasonably well, but we still went at four an over for the first 20 and then six an over for the next 20, but I suppose in good games of cricket that’s about where the run rate should be.
“We had a young team. It was good for our kids to be exposed to playing a team of Nyah’s quality when they have wickets in hand and batters set at the crease.
“The more times we can expose our kids to playing tough games of cricket, it’s going to only help in their development.”
As he was with the bat, Darren Rushton was also the pick of the Tigers’ bowlers, taking 2/24 from his eight overs, with brother Lachlan the only other multiple wicket taker for Woorinen with two.
For the Demons, captain Ben Shadbolt led the way with 2/16 from his eight overs, with Ben Sheridan taking 2/27 from his eight.
