THE Wangaratta and District Cricket Association team is back in the North East after a tough run at Country Week.

The WDCA played four matches last week at various grounds around Melbourne, but were unable to record a single win.

Batting first at Yarrambat War Memorial Park on Monday, Wangaratta posted 10/218 from 42.1 overs, before Sunraysia chased it down with eight overs to spare.

Ovens Valley United’s Cooper Thomason who would form the backbone of the innings, producing a ferocious and enthralling innings, smashing eight boundaries and five maximums on his way to 91 from 84 balls.

His power hitting was on display from the eighth over, which saw him plunder Sunraysia’s Liam Naylor for 24 runs in a single over, including three maximums and a four.

Unfortunately, he was caught in the 37th over, nine short of triple figures.

With a total on the board to defend and a moderate required run rate of 4.38 an over, WDCA needed to bowl extremely well.

However, extras would be the death by a thousand cuts for the WDCA, with 33 bonus runs (26 wides, six leg byes, one bye) allowing Sunraysia to chase the total for the loss of six wickets in 42 overs.

Tuesday saw a monstrous defeat at the hands of Gisborne and District, with the WDCA bowled out for 135 chasing 325, a margin of 190 runs.

OVU's Gregor Fraser picked up two wickets and made 18 runs with the bat.

Wednesday’s match against Bellarine Peninsula would be a closer match but a similar end result, with Bellarine chasing down WDCA’s 9/193 in the final over.

Thomason was the star with the bat once again, top scoring with 37 from 57 deliveries in the middle order.

Fraser would pick up another wicket, trapping Bellarine’s Matt Sampson-Barnes in front LBW for a duck, but the rest of the batting order chased the total five down.

WDCA’s final match was on Thursday, taking on South West Cricket at the Syd McGain Oval in Strathmore.

Their closest match of the tournament, WDCA would come up 37 runs short, bowled out for 224 chasing 9/261.

The WDCA bowlers had a tough time wrangling the South West batting line up, regularly going for more than four runs an over.

With the bat, many players worked hard and got starts, but were unable to turn it into a meaningful innings, with the exception of opener Tyler Nanson (69 off 77).