Taylors Lakes toiled hard in its Sub District Cricket clash with Williamstown, but was left with a big run chase on Saturday.
After two heartbreaking losses in recent weeks, the Lions attempted to resurrect their season against an unbeaten Williamstown side on its home deck as the Seagulls batted to the brink of stumps and posted 304.
The day started well for the visitors, with Williamstown opener Brenton Hodges (7) and first drop Brent McMinn (1) both falling cheaply to Yoshan Kumara.
Patrick O’Malley looked solid from the start, and the early part of the day saw Shaun Jennings (31) and Mitchell Streiff (25) batting around him while the Lions bowlers managed to dismiss Jennings and Streiff. O’Malley fell just before tea for a well made 50, and at 5-142 at the break the match was evenly poised.
Kumara had three wickets at the break, and spinner Jarrod Wakeling chipped in with two of his own, but Williamstown’s deep batting line-up came to the rescue, with skipper Dale McDonald and veteran Craig Sheedy combining to set up a big total. The pair put on 130 runs before McDonald (68) became Wakeling’s third victim, with Sheedy (73) dismissed by Dilan Chandima soon afterwards.
The Williamstown tail pushed the target out beyond 300 before Wakeling was able to wrap up the innings in the penultimate over.
Kumara showed his class early and troubled batsmen all day to finish with 3-35 off 16 overs, but Wakeling got the pick of the figures with 5-65 off 21 overs of quality spin bowling.
It was a similar tale for the second XI, with Williamstown riding a run a ball 114 from Cameron D’Altera as they batted out the day to close on 4-308 off their 80 overs.
The Lion’s first XI are still searching for their first win, and a successful chase for the second XI would further entrench them in the top six.
