Despite posting a defendable total, Mount Beauty went down to an experienced Yackandandah outfit by eight wickets last Saturday.

Skipper Greg McLennan continued his good form at the coin toss and elected to bat, and opening pair McLennan (35 runs off 25 balls) and Frank Iaria (55 off 83) made a promising start to the innings with a 53-run stand in eight overs.

When McLennan was bowled by opposing captain Bailey Glass early in the ninth over, the Power’s scoring rate slowed, yet they were still in a reasonable position to launch at the halfway point at 2/97 with batters in the shed.

While number three Mark Flay (18), Todd Jeanes (18) and Nick Iaria (25*) made double-figure contributions to the Power tally, the loss of wickets at regular intervals halted the chance of a 200-plus score, and Mount Beauty had to settle for 9/173 after the compulsory closure of their 40-over stint.

With ball in hand, Shannon Wilson struck with the seventh delivery of the innings with a sharp leg-side chance taken by wicketkeeper Frank Iaria, but reasons to celebrate in the field were few and far between for the remainder of the innings, as Yackandandah’s top four could not be contained and controlled the tempo of the chase.

Eight bowlers were used with limited success as the Roos reached the total with precisely 10 overs to spare and the loss of two wickets.

McLennan rued the lack of sizeable partnerships to propel his team to a total which would keep his team in front of the game.

“Frank [Iaria] came back up to the opening position and made a solid half century, complete with a number of signature clouts through the off-side,” McLennan said.

“While we didn’t lose wickets in clumps, it seemed that just as we were starting to build momentum, we would lose one and the scoring rate would drop off a bit.

“We probably ended up a bit shy of what we might have made but we felt that it was defendable if we bowled well.

“Unfortunately, we turned in probably our most disappointing bowling performance so far - we were missing two of our frontliners and a couple of others were a bit underdone.

“Ethan Brown bowled well again but without luck and first XI debutant Rory O’Brien showed plenty with his seamers, but we have some work to do to improve our consistency with the ball.”

In a match which will impact the make-up of finals as Barnawartha-Chiltern (sixth) travel to Mount Beauty (seventh), McLennan understands the importance of his side’s next contest.

“Next week we are back at home and should have a number of players back, so we are feeling good about our prospects,” he said.