WANDELLA v WOORINEN
A HOME semi-final will be on the line when second-placed Wandella hosts fourth-placed Woorinen at Riverside Park tomorrow afternoon.
With both teams sitting on 48 points (along with St Mary’s Tyntynder) and separated by percentage only, tomorrow’s match will go a long way to deciding the make up of next weekend’s A-Grade semi-finals.
For the Bombers, a win would likely see them finish second and host St Mary’s Tyntynder in next week’s knockout semi, while a loss could see them drop down to as low as fourth and travel to Nyah to face the Demons.
Wandella will no doubt be keen to return to the winners’ list, with last Saturday’s bye coming off the back of their tough two-wicket loss to RSL. Woorinen on the other hand got the job done against the Blues last weekend – although they were made to work for the six points after finding themselves at 7 for 50 at one point.
Marcus Mangiameli (83) and Darren Rushton (46) were the heroes, putting on 104 runs for the eighth wicket to save the Tigers – and more of the same will be expected from Mangiameli if Woorinen are to get the job done against the Bombers.
Greg Dickson has been in a similarly rich vein of form with the bat this season for Wandella, scoring 211 runs at an average of 42.20. While Dickson is the mainstay in the middle order, he’s also been ably assisted by Laine Gibbons (149 runs at 21.29), Luke Murray (133 runs at 19.00) and Bohden McKnight (125 runs at 20.83), who have all provided valuable contributions at different stages.
The challenge for the Woorinen batting line-up will be how they negotiate the Bombers’ opening bowlers. While Ryan Barnes has proven to be one of the league’s most consistent quicks, having taken 20 wickets so far across the season, it’s been the form of his partner in crime Logan Keighran that has really caught the eye in recent weeks. Keighran has been in scintillating form, taking 11 wickets from his past three matches, including four against RSL.ULTIMA-TUF v NYAH DISTRICT
ULTIMA-TUF will be out to do a number on a premiership fancy for the second week in a row, when they host Nyah District at the Alan Garden Reserve tomorrow afternoon.
The Roodogs pulled off one of the upsets of the season last Saturday, rolling St Mary’s Tyntynder for 90 and then comfortably chasing them down with 30 overs left in the game. Unfortunately for Ultima-TUF, Woorinen’s victory last week still sees them nine points outside the top four, with the season now virtually over – barring a miracle.
The only way for the Roodogs to sneak into the semi-finals would be with an outright victory – a scenario that would seem unlikely considering there are just 100 overs with which to achieve the feat – and the fact they are playing the table topping Nyah District.
The Demons find themselves 12 points clear on top of the ladder and are unable to lose top spot, a remarkable achievement considering their youthful and inexperienced squad.
When speaking with The Guardian earlier this week, Ultima-TUF skipper Kade Benfield made it clear that although the challenge of an outright win seemed unlikely, they’d be going for it nonetheless.
“We’ll definitely be trying to attack the game against Nyah – that’s how I’d like to play as captain, to try and be attacking,” Benfield said.
“It’s the only way we can make the finals and that’s the whole point of the season, we have no choice but to go out and play that way.”
If the Roodogs are to attempt the impossible, they will need to be super aggressive right from the first ball, with the hard-hitting Ben Shepherd likely to be given a licence to chase quick runs. Contributions from Kade Benfield and Mitch Seton-Stewart, who can both score at a rapid rate, will be vital for the Roodogs to post a big score in a short space of time.
The key will be to score quickly and not waste overs in order to leave themselves enough time to bowl Nyah District out twice – a task that will be no mean feat in itself.RSL v ST MARY’S TYNTYNDER
RSL will host St Mary’s Tyntynder in what will be two very different season-ending scenarios for both clubs.
For the Blues, their season will end no matter the result tomorrow, which will be a disappointing conclusion for a side that many thought were one of the teams to beat in 2021-22. The Saints on the other hand will be gearing up for a finals campaign where they’ll be hoping to add to their already growing collection of silverware, having already won the McDonald’s T20 competition and the Kookaburra Cup.
While both teams find themselves in very different positions on the ladder, they are both coming off disappointing losses last weekend – RSL letting Woorinen off the hook and St Mary’s Tyntynder capitulating with the bat against Ultima-TUF.
The Saints’ batting collapse last Saturday was disastrous and a performance that they’ll be hoping to avoid for the rest of the season – and with the talent at their disposal, one would assume it should be an anomaly rather than the normality.
It is now a challenge for St Mary’s as they go into the business part of the season to make sure it doesn’t happen again, even with class players like Jack Shannahan, Jake Foster and Riley and Corey Daniels at their disposal. The aggression with which they bat can often take games away from an opposition early in their innings – but when it doesn’t come off, it can leave the Saints exposed.
Brenton Caldwell will be someone who’ll be hoping to take advantage of that, especially after returning figures of 7 for 26 last Saturday. While Caldwell wound back the clock, producing one of the best spells of bowling for the season, RSL were still unable to capitalise on his good work, allowing Woorinen to go from a disastrous 7-50 to 8-154.
The problem for the Blues is their bowling depth, which has consistently been an issue for much of the season, and will be one that Ryan Hinton and his team will no doubt be working hard to address in the off-season.
