SWAN Hill again fell agonisingly short of an upset win, going down by two wickets to Woorinen.
After a strong performance against reigning premiers St.Mary’s-Tyntynder in round 2, the Swans looked on track for victory before stand-in captain Dean Morpeth broke their hearts with a matchwinning knock.
The Swans amassed 9-151 from their 40 overs and had the Tigers reeling at 6-69 in reply.
But veteran batsman Morpeth peeled off an unbeaten, run-a-ball 55 to get his team over the line and lift the Tigers to a 2-1 win-loss record.
“It was a good battle, it probably wasn’t the highest standard of game in that neither side played wonderful cricket, but it was a good battle that could have gone either way at different times,” Morpeth said.
“All credit to Swan Hill, they batted very well at the top, (Lachlan) Edwards batted really well and ‘Hatch’ (Jacob Hatcher) gave great support.
“We bowled alright, but batting wise, we didn’t play the pitch very well at times.
“We played across the line a bit too much, especially to shorter deliveries, but it’s good experience for our younger guys, which is our focus as a team this year.”
An 82-run opening partnership between Lachlan Edwards (56) and Jacob Hatcher (18) gave Swan Hill the perfect start, until they both departed within a couple of balls to Guri Singh (2-24) and Stefan Mangiameli (2-19).
From there, Swan Hill lost consistent wickets, with Ammar Khalid (31) and Dante Milano (15) the only other batsmen to reach double figures.
Woorinen also struggled to build partnerships after Guri Singh produced a hard-hitting 30 off 21 balls at the top of the order. But Morpeth and Stefan Mangiameli put on 47-runs for the seventh wicket to get the Tigers within sight of victory.
Morpeth was then joined by Jackson Hughes (14), with the youngster showing poise beyond his years.
“One of the best parts of yesterday’s win was having that partnership with Jackson Hughes,” Morpeth said.
“For him to bat the way he did when the pressure was on, when we were seven down and still needing 50 to win, he did a wonderful job.
“Our focus this year is all about giving opportunities to some of these kids, we want to try and bring them up to firstly being competitive and winning games, then hopefully getting back to challenging at the top one day.”
Hatcher followed up his performance with the bat to claim 5-25 from his eight overs.
