cgca
By john hehir
Moe and Latrobe are through to the TRUenergy Yallourn Cup grand final after convincing wins against Morwell and Mirboo North respectively.
The Lions will be lining up for their seventh consecutive premiership after beating Morwell by 104 runs.
Batting first, the Lions started shakily and at one stage were 4/55 before Andrew Philip found two batting partners in Aaron Walshe (18) and Paul Cake (39).
They figured in partnerships of 59 and 86 as Philip made his way to a century.
Unfortunately, he fell short being caught behind by Brad Soutar off Tim Dowe for 97.
Andrew Wilks and Dowe were Morwell’s best bowlers, taking 5/54 and 3/38 respectively.
Soutar also took four catches.
Morwell started its innings on Saturday night and faced one over without loss, but their lack of attacking cricket saw them 3/33 off 33 overs at the lunch break on Sunday.
Craig Giddens made a solid contribution with 42 and Shane Bromilow was the last man out on 17.
Tom Long (3/33), Sam Price (3/25) and Chris Johnson (2/18) gave nothing away – in their collective 64 overs, 31 maidens were bowled.
Morwell was all out for 129 in 84.1 overs, and full credit must go to the Moe attack.
Latrobe v Mirboo North
Latrobe had Mirboo North beaten after the first day when the Sharks had the Tigers’ strong batting lineup all out for 106.
Brendan Evans (3/31), Ash Halkett (2/36) and Kris Wells (3/13) never allowed the Tigers to get the upper hand.
Latrobe started poorly with Daniel Siddle out for a duck, but Justin Vajler (24) and Kaushik Aphale took the score to 57 before Vajler was out leg before wicket off Dale Banks.
Anthony Bloomfield and Aphale were never in trouble, until Bloomfield called for a quick single and did not heed Aphale’s call of “no.”
He ended up metres out of his ground with the score at 75.
Worse was to come for the Sharks when two balls later, Ian Kennedy was clean bowled by Banks.
In the same over, Kris Wells was stumped by Shane Peters which saw Latrobe lose three wickets for no runs.
In the next over Aphale took charge, hitting Steve Rogers for the first of his four sixes and with Nick Celima, took the score to 5/164 at stumps.
Celima went on to make 50 but it was Aphale who flayed the bowling and in one over from Damien Turner took 16 off four balls.
He was on 133 when Mirboo North called it quits after an hour on day two.
Second grade
Rawson and Mirboo North are through to the second grade grand final after beating Morwell and Moe.
Mirboo North had a few anxious moments before beating Moe.
The Lions batted first and made 151 with Joel Jacovou contributing 57.
After a 70-run fifth wicket partnership between Jimmy Grande (46*) and Chris Anders (33), the Tigers went from 5/127 to 7/127 after Aaron Johnstone took wickets in successive balls.
Grande steadied the side and saw his team home with a few balls to spare.
On Saturday Moe qualified by beating Jeeralang Boolarra by 46 runs with Alan Philip (73), Matt Lincoln (51) and Aaron Johnstone (4/23) got them over the line.
Rawson did it easily against Morwell winning by nine wickets at Peter Siddle Oval after thrashing St Vincents on Saturday by 111 runs.
Stuart Bailey (7/6) and Mark Smith (51) were the stars for the Tigers but did not fire yesterday.
Batting first, Morwell was all out for 106 with Ben Ainsworth (21) and Glen Gniel (22) in a 42 run partnership. Wayne Fleming with 3/16 was Rawson’s best bowler.
The Kookaburras were never in any danger as Wayne Warman (28) and Alex Sword (52*) added 58 for the opening stand and Kris Ayton (25*) teamed with Sword for a match winning 51 run stand.
Third grade
Moe and Latrobe will meet each other in the third grade grand final after beating Mirboo North and Hazelwood North.
Latrobe’s win has come at a cost however, as Steve Grover and Mick Archbold did hamstrings and may be doubtful this week.
Batting first, Latrobe made 9/187 with Grover making 46 and Dean Burridge 30 and Craig Johnson taking 3/8 from two overs for the Razorbacks. Paul Dawson (2/11) and Nathan Nikodemski (2/21) had Hazelwood North on the back foot at 4/10.
They were not able to recover, being all out for 115 with Grand Bellingham making 50.
Brothers Nick and Jeremy Brewer took 3/31 and 2/25 respectively for the Sharks.
Paul Kane with his ninth career century ensured Moe had an easy road to the grand final making an unbeaten 107 out of a total of 4/250. Steve Rennie was run out on the last ball of the innings for 42 and a partnership with Kane of 119.
He then took 4/30 from his 10 overs to have Mirboo North all out for 147.
Colts
Hazelwood North and Mirboo North will play in the colts grand final after convincing wins against Willow Grove and Moe.
The Razorbacks were kept to 95 off 38.1 overs at Burrage, with James Allan top scoring with 53.
Brendan Mason (2/7) and Dylan Day (2/9) had the Willow Grove team 4/4 and Matt Bills made 20 of their disappointing 34.
Zayne Dowdell finished off the good work of his opening attack taking 4/14 and James Allan finished a good day’s with taking 2/4.
Mirboo North had to work a bit harder against Moe, dismissing them for 110 with Robert Sim making 56. Ben Richards took 4/14 and Jesse Buxton 3/9.
The Tigers took 39.1 overs to reach Moe with Wal Worsfold retiring at 30, with Adrian Williams (33*) and Jesse Buxton (11*) seeing their team get a grand final spot.
