By Lachlan Onions
MOUNT GAMBIER AND DISTRICT 3/87 d HORSHAM CRICKET ASSOCIATION 10/86
THE final round of the KFC Festival of Cricket saw Mount Gambier claim an emphatic victory over Horsham at Island Park on Sunday.
After winning the toss, Mount Gambier sent Horsham into bat and it did not take long for the decision to pay dividends.
In just the third over of the game, Penola’s Michael Waters found the breakthrough as he bowled opener Paddy Mills for a duck.
Soon after, Isaac Mulraney dismissed the other opener, Mitchell Dahlenburg for 11 runs to make it 2/24.
Nathan Alexander joined Matthew Combe in the middle and failed to withstand the Mount Gambier bowling attack as he was dismissed by Waters for just three runs.
The wickets continued to fall for Horsham and Combe was the only batter to provide some resistance as he fought his way to 43 off 83 balls before he was bowled by spinner Emerson Marks to make it 8/85.
Nick McInerney then cleaned up the tail to bowl out the visitors for a disappointing score of just 86 runs.
McInerney was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/4 off 3.3 overs, while Trent Badman and Waters both claimed two scalps each in an impressive bowling display from the hosts.
With just 87 runs needed for victory, all Mount Gambier needed was one good partnership to claim the win and the openers did just that as Jack Mullan and William Rowland combined for a 69-run opener stand before Tyler Puls dismissed Mullan for 45.
Puls found himself on a hat-trick as he bowled Nic Brown for a golden duck.
However, Rowland survived the hat-trick ball the following over.
Daniel Schaper claimed a late consolation wicket for his side as he dismissed Rowland for 25 runs, before Marks and Jake Blackwell combined to score the final 12 runs for victory.
