By Tara Murray
Altona Sports will have to wait another week to try and seal premiership glory in the Western Suburbs Churches and Community Cricket Competition A.E Lowe Shield.
Sports was on top after day one of the clash with Western United and had been keen to rapt it up on Sunday.
But with heavy rain falling, the decision was made Sunday morning to call off play for the day and use the reserve day this Saturday for the competition’s only two-day competition.
Sports captain Liam Brennan said it was slightly annoying as they would have liked to have it wrapped up, they understood the decision.
He said it was no different to a normal round when matches are played on two successive Saturdays.
Things didn’t look great early on for Altona on Saturday after winning the toss on its home deck.
“We lost our leading run scorer for a duck early,” Brennan said. “It was a bit of a worry.
“Aidan [Sinclair] our other opener has been really solid with the bat and had a nice partnership. We were 4-100 when myself and Khush [Talati] were together.
“We built a bit of a partnership and then I got out. Khush then started to go ballistic with everything going to the fence.
“As others tired out, he made 103 in the end.”
Brennan said they knew that Talati had that sort of performance in him and they had built their batting innings around their lower order being able to hit out and play the big shots.
Sports was bowled out for 320 in the 72nd over.
Brennan said they were confident they could get 10 wickets this Saturday to lock in the premiership.
He said they were more a bowling team than a batting side.
“They have a couple of key batters,” he said. “Their openers are the key and we have to get those two out.
“If we can get them out early, it will make a big difference for them.”
It was a mixed weekend for Sports’ other sides in their grand finals.
The division 10 team had a good start before being beaten by about 100 runs.
Its division 13 team won after a really strong performance with the bat.
It was heartbreak for the division 14 team suffered heartbreak for a second straight season.
After losing last season’s grand final by one wicket, it lost this season’s grand final also by one wicket, as it couldn’t take the last wicket.
