Ovens Valley United have the rain gods to thank for escaping Beechworth’s Baarmutha Park without a loss on Saturday.

If their A grade match was allowed to go even one over longer, the result may have been put beyond doubt, but ultimately the game was called off midway through the 41st over of the second innings.

By the time stumps had been called, Beechworth were sitting on 5/231 (40.3) and within striking distance of the Tigers’ total of 8/238 (45).

After winning the toss and batting, Ovens Valley were in dire need of a partnership at 2/57, and as he so often does, their shining star answered the call.

Geeth Alwis cracked 68 runs from 77 deliveries, finding the rope eight times during his knock.

He was well supported by young gun Noah White (36 off 52), and together with Alwis would forge a solid 78-run partnership before White was caught.

Alwis departed soon after, leaving the Tigers at 4-141, but English import Joel Jordan was happy to shoulder the innings in his best outing for the orange and black so far this season.

Jordan was hammering them to all parts, smashing 11 boundaries and striking at 117.74 during his scintillating innings of 73 from 62 balls faced.

However, his partners were falling at the other end – after Ben McMasters made 11 batting at six, no other middle order or tail ender made more than five.

Despite this, the Tigers had posted a defendable total of 8/238.

Skipper Seamus Phillips was happy with how the team went about it, but said they left a few out on the park.

“Batting-wise, with another 20 runs we probably could’ve won that game,” he said.

“The pitch was perfect for batting on and the ground was quick, so we were still probably 20 or 30 runs behind where we wanted to be.

“With the batting, I think we just lacked a bit of intensity from overs 25-35, and we were just trying to conserve wickets in hand and then explode, but we probably wanted to be a bit more proactive and push a few more singles, take another couple of risks.

“It’s the best I’ve seen Joel bat – credit to him, he looked a bit shaky for his first 15-20 balls, he was about one off 15, but to finish 73 off 62 balls was a pretty good effort.

“Geeth, obviously that’s normal for him now.”

With the ball in hand, storm clouds loomed large and grey overhead, foreshadowing a tough afternoon for the Tigers.

After Joe Monk trapped Beechworth opener Campbell Fendyk LBW for a rapid 28 off 16, Will Prebble and Brenton Surrey settled in, building a partnership worth 119 runs.

The Tigers didn’t help themselves in the field, dropping Surrey several times on his way to 85 off 91, and missing a stumping off Prebble who ended up on 64 off 69.

“With our bowling, I think we were still in the T20 frame,” Phillips said.

“We bowled pretty straight, trying to attack and get wickets, and we weren’t as patient as we have been previously in our one-day stuff.

“There’s still a lot to work on – we dropped Brenton twice and missed Will Prebble’s stumping, so there were about 80 runs there that we gave them.

“If we want to play finals and push deep into finals, we can’t be dropping Brenton Surrey twice, that won’t win you games of cricket.”

As the runs required ticked ever downward, Mother Nature made her presence known, with lightning strikes, drizzly raid and poor light setting in.

While the umpire kept both teams out in the middle, trying to get a result, ultimately the teams were called from the middle, and the match was abandoned with Beechworth needing just eight runs in four and a half overs.

“We should’ve been off an hour and a half beforehand, there were about 20 strikes of visible lightning for an hour before we came off,” Phillips said.

“At about 6.20pm it started drizzling and by 6.30pm it bucketed down.

“It was on the cards for the best part of an hour, after drinks it was looking gloomy and Beechworth could’ve ramped it up, and we did pretty well to try and slow them down as much as possible and drag it out.

“It was pretty much done, another over and we probably would’ve lost it.”

The Tigers sit second overall on the A grade ladder, and have plenty of time to tweak things before their next game.

Due to the Australia Day league-wide bye this weekend, and the Tigers having the bye the following weekend, their next game isn’t until 7 February, a home game against Wangaratta Magpies which is sure to be a fiery contest.