MERINO MAGIC

24 February 2010

JOHN DONEGAN

THE first day of the final Round of Casterton cricket produced many highlights as competing teams fought for the honour of hosting a home semi-final.

The wind blew a gale, with the grounds in Casterton and Wando Vale being most affected. In a remarkable change of fortune, the Wombats from Merino put the ignominy of their round 9 outright defeat behind them to roll ladder leader Wando Vale for just 143 runs on the lightning fast Wando Vale Oval.

Merino’s Andrew Russell was again the day’s top performer with the ball with 5-67 from 20 overs. The Merino batsmen then put their team in a good position to take the first innings points by reaching 2-91 at stumps. Runs returned in copious abundance to the number 1 oval at Island Park, with Edenhope and Casterton together amassing 260 runs for the loss of 12 wickets.

Aaron Lloyd was the day’s top scorer and his 87 runs helped set up the Edenhope first innings. But the Casterton bowlers found their line and length after tea as Edenhope collapsed from 3-170 to be all out for 209.

In the 14 overs remaining, Casterton reached 2-51 at the close of play.

Dergholm recovered from a shaky 3-30 to score 136 in 47 at Pigeon Ponds. The home team was also 3-30 in its first innings, but Michael Close (34) and Michael Craig (13 not out) dug in to steer their team to the relative comfort of 3-76 at the end of the day’s play.

Exciting times abound next Saturday. We will have to wait until 5.50pm when the results are known and the bonus points are tallied. Only then will we know the composition and venues of the Labour Day weekend finals.