OVENS Valley United’s title defence of the A grade one-day crown is officially over. The Tigers finish the white-ball portion of the season fifth overall with three wins and four losses. The final nail in the coffin was their seven-wicket demolition at the hands of City Colts on Saturday at McNamara Reserve. Batting first on what was a very good deck for scoring runs, the Tigers failed to capitalise on their chances, bowled out for 152 in the final over. Gregor Fraser was the first to go, dismissed for just four runs, while last week’s hero Seamus Phillips mustered only 11 before he was caught behind. Batting talisman Geeth Alwis was kept uncharacteristically quiet, but together he and skipper Dylan Bursill put on 46 runs before falling in quick succession. Young Noah White batted beyond his year, recording 19 from 37 deliveries, while Conner Forde was the aggressor. Forde would help get the Tigers into triple figures, blasting 44 from 55 deliveries, but when he was bowled by Jed Marek, the innings was all be wrapped up. Bursill said it was a disastrous batting performance with so much on the line. “The ground and pitch were pretty good again, we knew 200 would be par and we were well under that, it was disappointing,” he said. “We just had that unfortunate start which was the complete polar opposite of the week before when we had a really good start. “No one really valued their wicket in the top order, a couple cheap dismissals, it was disappointing. “Conner and young Noah White who came in at seven, he’s only 15 and he’s a really good player, they had a really good partnership once myself and Geeth went out back-to-back. “We’ve been talking about partnership after partnership, you’ve got to get three or four good partnerships to make a decent score.” With a sub-par total to defend, the Tigers knew they had to bowl out of their skin to stay in the match, but the Colts’ openers had other ideas. Taking advantage of some lax bowling and dropped catches, the Colts stormed past the total only two down, finishing their 40 overs with 3/210. “We didn’t really bowl very well to their batters. Mitch Giggins and Tyler Nanson, who batted really well, took the game away from us in the first 10 overs, they were just hitting two or three boundaries an over,” Bursill said. “We swapped our bowling up, no one could really consistently bowl to our field. “We were very sloppy in the field, we dropped half a dozen catches, it just wasn’t our day.” Attention will now turn to the two-day format, with three matches left before finals. The Tigers are currently fourth on the overall ladder, and will host last-placed Benalla Bushrangers over the next two Saturdays. “The next four weeks, we’ve got Benalla and Beechworth, and those games are going to be crucial,” Bursill said. “If we let one or both of those games slip, we can kiss our season goodbye. “We’ve got to really focus on this week against Benalla, pay them respect. “We’re at home again, so hopefully we can get the runs on the board and bowl well, because they’ve got some players who are hitting form.”
