NOTHING in cricket is ever certain.
Rovers United Bruck needed just 31 runs with four wickets in hand for victory over Yarrawonga Mulwala at WJ Findlay Oval on Saturday, an achievable target with the depth of batting available to them.
However, the Lakers bowlers proved too strong, ripping through the middle order and tail to pick up 4/18 and roll the Hawks for 58.
RUB’s Lucky Shantha and Matt Whitten were at the crease at the start of day two, with plenty of time to bat themselves in and whittle away at the total.
Angus Heslin steamed in during the first over, and drew the edge on the sixth ball of the day when Shantha defended, caught behind.
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Disaster struck again for the home side just four balls later when Whitten prodded at one outside off stump, edging it into the gloves of Reid Clarke.
In the first 10 balls of the day, the Rovers had slumped from 6/40 to 8/40.
With a lot of work to do, Dan Jones and Jacob Schonafinger worked their way into the day, managing to rotate the strike well.
Their partnership would only last for seven runs before Helsin managed to slip one through Jones’ defence, castling the import for two runs.
Schonafinger would battle away, top scoring with 13*, but the result was sealed when Van Kreeck caught the edge of Charlie Lugg’s bat, caught behind for two.
RUB skipper Paddy McNamara said it was an extremely disappointing way to end the match.
“To lose two pretty experienced players and have our tail come in straight away wasn’t ideal,” he said.
“The message was to go out positive but we didn’t really have a chance to be positive, they both got out defending, just genuine good balls that got nicked behind.
“The deck still had a bit in it, both of the Anguses, Heslin and McMillan, bowled superb.
“It’s the result of last weekend, when you lose six wickets it comes back to bite you.
“We thought if we got off to a good start we could get home pretty comfortably, but unfortunately we lost those early wickets and it was just an uphill battle from there.”
With plenty of time still in the day, the Lakers had another bat to try and snare an outright victory, but the Hawks weren’t done yet.
Led by Dan Jones, with season best figures of 6/24 from 10 overs, the home side rolled through the Lakers for 93.
With the Lakers leading by 105 in the second innings, both an outright and reverse outright were on the cards with 10 overs of play.
The Hawks played their shots, but couldn’t make the total in the time left in the day, finishing at 3/73.
McNamara (24*) and Schonafinger (23*) led the way batting in the second innings.
“We’re pretty proud of our fightback in the second innings, we knew we were still out there to try and win the game, thought we could pinch a reverse outright which we fought very hard for,” McNamara said.
“Dan Jones had his best game for the season, he’s really having an awesome season with the ball.
“Unfortunately we probably didn’t give ourselves enough overs to get the score, we weren’t good enough with the bat in the first innings to win the game.”
The Hawks remain on top of the table with three matches left before finals.
