It was a line in the sand moment for Yarraville in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association east-west on Saturday.
The Eagles had just two wins in the first part of the season and had struggled to put it all together.
But on Saturday, that changed as they were able to account for Croydon and get their third win of the season.
Eagles coach Michael Sheedy said there was a lot of relief among the group.
“To say we needed that was an understatement,” he said.
“It was nice to get the reward for sticking at it.
“We have not been good enough in key moments but we were on Saturday which helps.
“It’s the first time we’ve banded together with bat and ball.”
The Eagles were sent in and made 7-181 from their 45 overs.
Sheedy said while no one was able to go on and get a big score they put a lot of partnerships together and there were lots of contributions.
Samar Partap Singh top scored with a run a ball 49, while Jack Brown finished 45 not out.
Only one Croydon batter got going and as a result the side was bowled out for 138 in a strong bowling performance from the Eagles.
Nikhil Suresh and Lewis Eldridge took three wickets each for the Eagles.
Sheedy said they hoped this might kick start their season. The Eagles sit 12th on the ladder.
He said with a very inexperienced line up it was always going to take some time to settle in.
“We had to get through to Christmas,” he said.
“We had hoped to start to integrate everyone a bit more and what we wanted to do as a team.
“We are driven by results and we haven’t had the results. We had to draw a line in the sand and we had to get a result that was favourable to us.
“Hopefully we’re set up for the back half of the season and do some damage around us.”
It was a good weekend for the Eagles with three sides getting wins and plenty of smiles about the place.
The Eagles face Donvale and Spotswood in the next two matches.
Sheedy is also helping coach the club’s J G Craig Shield side.
The side is undefeated after the first week of matches.
Sheedy said most of the squad was part of their senior program which was exciting for the future.
In other east-west matches, Altona got home against Noble Park, Spotswood lost to Box Hill and Williamstown’s four game winning streak game to an end against Mt Waverley.
