History has been made by the Berrigan Cricket Club, claiming their first B Grade Murray Valley Cricket Association premiership on Saturday.
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The grand final saw the Saints travel to Barooga to take on Cobram, where a dominant batting performance by Matt Ross (92) and a six-wicket haul from Matt Whelan saw Berrigan earn a 76 run victory.
It was Berrigan’s first time tasting premiership success since claiming the C Grade championship in 2011/12 and the third in its history, the club’s first C Grade premiership coming in 1963/64.
The Man of the Match honour went to 15 year-old Matt Whelan, after scoring 12 runs off 51 balls and finishing with bowling figures of 6/3 off 5.2 overs.
Berrigan skipper Zach Nugent said the win capped off a strong season from his side.
‘‘What a season this was,’’ he said.
‘‘It shows that all the hard work has paid off. We all started training six weeks before the season started and that commitment was rewarded.
‘‘It was one of those days where everything went well with our bowling, fielding and batting all coming together.
‘‘I’d like to thank everyone for coming over to Barooga, it was really nice to see a crowd cheering us on, and to Tim Harris for being our major sponsor once again this year.’’
Berrigan travelled to Barooga, who had prepared a hard flat wicket with a green top and appeared to be more enticing to bowl first. Cobram won the toss and sent the Saints in to bat.
Andrew Parr and Matt Whelan took to the crease with Cobram opening the bowling with Jon Frankel and Andrew Hogan.
It was Cobram who started strongly with Parr (0) caught at first slip off Frankel (1/30 off eight) in the third over.
Connor Thornton came to the crease and after cracking a ‘four’ through point early, he succumbed to a ball from Hogan (1/31) that had him cramped and caught behind.
With the score at 2/5, Matt Ross joined Whelan at the crease and the pressure was right on the Saints.
Ross settled quickly and put anything loose to the boundary while Whelan pushed the singles, giving the strike to the big batsman.
Darcy McCormack was introduced in to the attack and started poorly with his first ball going to the fence.
This was the start of Ross’s onslaught as the big batsman took on all the bowling Cobram threw at him, as the Saints’ run rate went to 5.1 runs for the next 10 overs.
Ross moved into the 40s and then brought up his 50 with another boundary in the 17th over.
At the drinks break the Saints had moved to 2/74 with Ross continuing his strong scoring following the break.
He took after the medium pace bowlers, however with Nick Kennedy (2/25 off eight) coming into the attack with his spin bowling, the boundaries dried up.
In the 24th over Whelan (12) was caught in the slips off McCormack (1/42 off eight) and the score was now 3/90.
Nugent was next in and with Ross the two moved the score past 100 in the 26th over with the run rate still going at five an over and after 30 overs the Saints were now 3/124 with Ross moving to 90.
With 10 overs to bat and plenty of batsmen in the shed, Nugent opted to start increasing the run rate again, however this failed with Kennedy bowling Nugent (9).
Next over Ross was caught behind after skying one off Noah Sneddon (2/15 off four) for a great knock of 92, which included 14 ‘fours’.
The Saints were now 5/128 with eight overs to go.
Tom Beams and Harley Middleton were the fresh men in for the Saints running between the wickets picking up cheeky singles but the two only managed to get the score to 133 before Beams (3) was caught in the deep off Sneddon and the score now was 6/143.
Tom Whelan came to the crease and with Middleton continued the trend of pushing singles before Middleton (7) was bowled by Kennedy.
Whelan departed the next over when Hogan was brought back into the attack, clean bowling the Saint to have the score at 8/149.
With Brad Loats and Lachie Pyle (7 not out) fresh at the crease, Loats took the opportunity to really hit Cobram hard.
He managed to belt 18 runs from 11 balls, including two massive ‘sixes’ and the two pushed the Saints tally to 8/171 after their 40 overs.
The Saints hit the ground running in their run defence, with Ross having Bernie Kelly (4) in the first over.
Tom Beams (0/27 off seven) started at the other end with immediate pressure with a maiden.
Nugent (2/22 off eight) was brought into the attack early with immediate success, trapping Hogan (3) LBW off his first ball and after five overs the Tigers were under pressure at 2/10.
Brett Gallagher and McCormack struggled early with the Saints’ line and length with a lot of catching opportunities flying through the gully region.
These boundaries got the Tigers back on track, racing to the 50 mark after 13 overs.
Ross was brought back into the attack and in the second over of his second spell, Lachie Pyle snaffled a blinder of a catch in the gully to dismiss McCormack (18) and the Tigers were now 3/55.
The next over Nugent had Gallagher (24) caught behind and the Saints were back on top at 4/57 after 17 overs.
Tarkyn Hyde and Justin Peace were the two fresh batsmen in for Cobram.
The two added a further 22 to the score before Matt Whelan came into the attack.
The young left arm swing bowler had the Cobram batsmen perplexed with his swing bowling and after his first maiden over, the young gun had Hyde (5) caught in his second over and Brodie Seccull (2) bowled, Albert Zito (0) trapped LBW and Sneddon (0) bowled in this third over reducing Cobram to 8/82 after 25 overs.
His fourth over was again a maiden and in his fifth over he bowled Cobram’s captain Sullivan (8) to have the Tigers at 9/92.
Whelan’s sixth over only lasted two balls bowling Peace (21) to claim the premiership, with Whelan finishing with figures 6/3 after 5.2 overs with four maidens.