Wightman snares crucial Club wicket and the rest tumble

WONTHAGGI Club’s Ryan Thomas was well set and in command of the Nerrena bowling, seemingly scoring at will in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday.

And apart from giving up a sharp chance to Mitch Clark at short midwicket, after passing his half century, he looked every bit the man of the hour in the A Grade Division One Semi-Final at the Butch West Oval in Wonthaggi.

But then Nerrena’s Tim Wightman completely turned the game.

Wightman was darting them in low and rolling the wrist over to the town end of the ground, clearly working to a plan as he bowled to the dangerous Thomas.

Dot ball, dot ball and then he got one to skid through just that little bit more, it took the outside edge of Thomas’ bat, almost unexpectedly, and went through at pace to the waiting buckets of Josh Trease, one of the best slippers in the comp… out!

It was the crucial wicket of the day, Ryan Thomas out for 65 off 131 balls, when he looked for all the world set to anchor a rearguard action by the Club’s men.

But it wasn’t to be.

The master of cleaning up the tail, Wightman then went to work and ably assisted in the field, he took all of the remaining Wonthaggi Club wickets pretty cheaply, finishing with 5/34 off 16.5 overs, to see them slump from a promising position at the halfway stage on Saturday to be all out for 136.

The Nerrena bowlers had all been miserly.

Josh Trease gave up just 14 runs off 16 overs to really turn the screws, finishing with 1/14 while Jarrod Hoy was the wicket taker at the other end, with 4/48 off 22 overs, all of them top-of-the-order Club batsmen on an overcast day, it must be said, that favoured the bowlers.

It was then left to Jack Curtis and Mitch Clark to see out the rest of the afternoon safely, each facing almost 60 balls each before Jakeb Thomas got the all-important breakthrough, Clark out LBW for 15 deep into the first day.

Curtis went soon after without adding further to his score and when James Kelly was out for a duck, the score was 3/34 and Club had the start they needed, defending 136 which all-of-a-sudden looked a defendable score.

Inverloch fighting back

Down at the Thompson Reserve at Inverloch, the home side backed themselves in after winning the toss, and elected to bat but apart from Dave Newman 19 not out off 81 balls and Will Rankin 18 late, they never really got going against OMK and finished with a difficult-to-defend 83.

The wickets were spread evenly around between Travis Pickering 2, Jugraj Singh 2, Adam Trotto 3 and Ryan Williams 2 in a textbook display in the field.

But Inverloch wasn’t done with yet and they claimed some cheap early wickets before the OMK captain Koby Brann found a willing partner in Tom Wyatt and they set about polishing off the necessary runs during a productive fifth-wicket partnership.

Brann stuck around through some more shaky moments for OMK as they closed in on the target, and together with ninth man in. Adam Trotto, guided them past Inverloch's total, eight down.

They’ll all come back tomorrow and who knows what turn of events we'll see as four teams vie for the chance to play off in the grand final next weekend.