By Trevor Jackson
WEST GAMBIER 10/292 D MIL LEL 10/70
WEST Gambier placed itself in a strong position to advance to the Barber Shield grand final after a solid effort with the bat against Mil Lel on on day one of the Barber Shield semi-final clash.
Played at Malseed Park, West – a hot favourite for this season’s overall honours – faced a determined Mil Lel, a side which has certainly thrown a curve ball at the rest of the competition this season and could not be discounted.
The Roos won the toss and elected to bat, which in the end paid dividends.
A century down the order to Sujith Nikethana set the Roos up in the end, but some solid efforts at the pointy end of the batting lineup certainly helped the score build.
Unfortunately, openers Justin deJong and Nuwan Gunawardana made few inroads into the final total, with deJong lbw to Harry Hicks for 11, while Jack Miller had Gunwardana caught for just four runs.
Jayden Prior stepped up to the plate and pushed the ball around the ground on his way to a timely 40 runs, which included six boundaries.
Samuel Coxon provided some support, but after 21 balls was caught off the bowling of Toby Griggs for just three.
Jake Blackwell dug in and it took 52 deliveries to dislodge him, eventually caught off Nick Walters for 20.
Sam Willis faced just seven balls before falling caught-and-bowled to Craig Hicks for one, while Bray Stephenson was bowled by Hicks for just two.
With Mil Lel threatening to claim the bragging rights after the opening day of play, Nikethana stoop up and began to compile the runs.
He was joined by Jack Geddes and the pair put the Roos back on the front foot.
Nikethana faced 123 balls, found the boundary 13 times and cleared it once on his way to 114.
he was run out in a moment of confusion, but certainly saved the day for the Roos.
Geddes faced 112 balls for his 49, cut short by Walters.
Walters then cleaned up Shane deJong for a handy 19, while Bailey Rothall remained unbeaten on zero and West was all out in the 70th over for 292.
With the ball, Walters and Craig Hicks claimed three wickets each.
It was certainly going to be a tough chase for Mil Lel, not helped by their performance with the bat before stumps.
Mil Lel faced just seven overs before stumps, but slumped to 4/16, leaving plenty to do on day two.
Jarrad Sanders was out lbw to Stephenson for just four runs, while Walters contributed one, caught off the bowling of Willis.
Mitchell Little fell to Willis for a duck, as did Harry Hicks.
The scorecard did not improve much on day two, with the Roos on top and eager the head back to the shed to celebrate.
Toby Grigg fell early, lbw to Willis for eight, then Ty Dinnison and Darcy Williams looked to steady the innings.
The 27-run stand was a welcome change, but Stephenson soon ended that with the wicket of Williamson for 13.
Willis bowled Dinnison with no further runs added to the scorecard and it was all-but over for Mil Lel.
In the end West stormed to the grand final, with Mil Lel all out for 70 runs after just 25 overs.
Willis was impressive with the ball, with figures of 5/25 off 10 overs.
