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The two-day cricket resumed at the weekend in hot conditions with all Tatura senior teams in with a chance of victory at the half-way mark.

A-grade is playing Mooroopna at Mooroopna with the teams vying for the same place in the finals.

Tatura won the toss and batted and again got off to a shaky start, losing the first wicket at five. Peter Watt, with the assistance of Dave Miller (17) and Dan Coombs (13), restored some stability to the innings. Watt was then joined by Tom Miller and they produced a partnership of 70 to enable Tatura to build a score there is some hope of defending. Watt went on to make 74 with seven fours and Miller, in his best innings of the season, made 41 with three fours. Then what has become a “tail” of woe set in, with six wickets falling in the space of 23 runs, and Tatura was all out for 156.

The Tatura bowlers responded to the challenge, bowling 18 tight overs to have Mooroopna 3-39 at stumps. Chris McCallum took 2-24 from six overs with Bryan Doyle chipping in with 1-2 from two overs towards the close of play. In a contest that is taking on a “traditional rivals” flavour, the game is evenly balanced with both sides having a chance for victory.

B-grade is hosting Numurkah at Tatura Park where all Tatura home games will be played for the rest of the season due to the work on the Howley Oval wicket. Numurkah won the toss and batted on what proved to be a very good wicket. The batsmen played steadily to reach 4-144 when the persistence of the bowlers paid dividends with the last six wickets falling for 44 runs. Numurkah was all out for 184. The bowling honours were shared by fast bowler Josh Rankin and off spin bowler Lachie Magee. Rankin toiled manfully in the trying conditions to finish with 5-65 from 23 overs that included five maidens. Magee took 4-43 from 14.4 overs that included six maidens. The other wicket was a run out courtesy of Dan Johnstone. Junior wicket keeper Michael Donaldson took two catches.

Tatura had to face 10 overs at the end of the day in which tireless Rankin again stood out, remaining unbeaten on 22, which included four fours, at stumps. With Luke Stubbington’s support (5 not out) Tatura finished on 27 without loss of a wicket with a good chance of achieving a win next Saturday.

C-grade travelled to Lemnos to play Pine Lodge in what proved to be circumstances not even the long serving members of the team could remember experiencing before.

Tatura started badly after being sent into bat to be at one stage 4-20. The two experienced hands, Chris Solum and Gary Dealy, then came to the rescue with a partnership of 131. Solum, after having to contend with grubbers and a rearing ball that struck him on the helmet, went on to make 68 while Dealy top scored with 78. The next best score was extras with 32. Tatura was finally all out for 228.

In a colourful nine overs before stumps, Pine Lodge made a rapid 2-54 with Will Hemming and the irrepressible Dealy each taking a wicket. Tatura is in a winning position.

D-grade was at home to Toolamba at Howley Oval 2. Tatura made early inroads in the Toolamba batting to have it 2-5. A middle order recovery enabled the visitors to finish on 160. Ash Dowell had a day out with the ball to finish with 5-50. Jordan Crisp, with his pace severely handicapped because of back problems, took 2-39, Clinton Sharkey took 2-32 and Rob Dowell claimed a wicket.

In reply, Tatura made a good start to be 5-139 at stumps, a situation that would have been much better if Adrian Cook hadn’t succumbed to a wild shot on the third last ball of the day. Crisp completed a good all round performance with 55. Rob Dowell made 14, Jack O’Toole 13, and Sean Ryan remained not out on 38. Tatura are in a winning position, especially with the experienced Ryan still at the crease.

Juniors

The under-12A team took on Kialla Knights at Kialla where it won the toss and asked the visitors to bat.

This age group is playing over two days, but with each team batting for half its allotted 22 overs on each day. Kialla reached 1-53 from its first tranche of overs with the wicket a run out. In reply, Tatura batted solidly to be 3-126. In an even team batting performance, Callum Minutoli made 16 not out, Will Pyke 21, Josh Scrimizzi 16 not out, Matthew Fraser 11 not out and Harry Powell 11 not out. Each team will complete its allotted overs next week with Tatura in a very strong position.

The under-12B team played Notre Dame/St Brendans Maroon. Batting first, Tatura was 8-65 from its first 22 overs with Liam Ryan top scoring with 12. In reply, Notre Dame accumulated 132 without loss, again highlighting the age disadvantage of the Tatura team. The game resumes next week with the home side comfortably ahead.

The under-14 team had a bye and under-16 results were not available.