By Trevor Jackson
NORTH SPORTSMAN’S 10/139 D EAST GAMBIER 10/125
NORTH Sportsman’s struggled to keep its grand final aspirations alive against a tough East Gambier outfit on day one of the weekend’s Mount Gambier and District Barber Shield cricket semi-final.
Played at Scott Park, the Tigers won the toss and elected to bat, but found runs hard to come by on the unforgiving strip.
It was slow going to openers Alex Hutton and Brad Robinson.
Hutton was bowled by speedster Alex Hentschke for 18 runs off a steady 44 deliveries.
Robinson hung around a bit longer and eventually reached 30, but took 100 balls to get there, before he was stumped by Alex Hill off the bowling of Emerson Marks.
Michael Johnston reached his double figures, but was caught off the bowling of Marc Roberts for 10.
When run-machine Elliott Fisher was out for a five-ball duck, caught by Alex Hentschke off the bowling of Ben Hentschke, the Tigers were in trouble and looked to the likes of Nick McInerney and Mitchell Lewis to right the ship.
However, McInerney could only contribute 11 runs, off a slow 64 balls, before offering Alex Hentschke another catch, this time off the bowling of Liam Turley.
Mitch Lewis continued to keep the fires burning while the wickets fell around him, with Nicolas Brown out for a duck and Isaac Mulraney caught-and-bowled by Marks for just four.
Lewis eventually fell for a well-crafted half-century, caught off Ben Hentschke for 52, which included six fours and one six.
The remainder of the scorecard was not flattering for the Tigers, with Declan Kenny out for five, Thomas Madigan for a golden duck and Tim Young unbeaten on three.
After 69.4 overs North was out for just 139 runs.
Ben Hentschke was the best of the bowlers with figures of 4/31.
Turley and Marks claimed two wickets each.
With time on their side the Bulldogs headed into the middle, but at the end of the day their scorecard looked little better that North’s.
Aiden Creasey went lbw to Kenny for just five runs, while Ben Hentschke was unable to keep his momentum going with the bat and fell to McInerney for one runs.
At stumps the Bulldogs sat at 2/11 after facing seven overs.
From there the Tigers applied the pressure, as Kenny claimed the wicket of Connor Little for two and Ben Robinson followed, bowled by McInerney for just three.
Alex Hill stuck around for 54 deliveries but could only muster 17 runs from them before he fell to Tim Young.
When Emerson Marks departed for seven, East had slumped to 6/45.
In the end even the partnership of Dion Stratford (41) and Alex Hentschke (36) could not save the Bulldogs, as they fell agonisingly short of a grand final berth, all out for 125.
