Tara Murray
Spotswood pulled off its biggest win of the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association south-west season on Saturday and kept its finals hopes alive in the process.
After their worst performance of the season the previous week against Williamstown, the Woodsman had a point to prove on Saturday against Caulfield.
The Woodsman stunned Caulfield with a strong bowling performance to restrict them to 9-141.
They completed the performance, making 5-142 with the bat to seal the win.
Woodsmen coach Dan Schuppan said it was a massive win.
“They are the best team over the last decade,” he said. “This is huge.
“We’ve been in a bit of a lull dropping those few games, it was great for the boys to show a bit of character and keep the season alive.
“We made a real point during the week, that win, loss or draw, we had to give 110 per cent.”
Schuppan was thrilled with the bowling performance and keeping Caulfield to such a low total.
He said he would have taken that score at the start of the day.
“I’d take that 10 times out of 10,” he said.
“We had them about eight for 100 odd so we could have got them out a bit more cheaply.”
Jackson Wadden, Jarryd Vernon and Matthew Sazenis took two wickets each.
It was the performance of Declan O’Brien who made 59 not out that impressed Schuppan the most in the run chase.
“He normally bats at six but got an opportunity to bat at four with Mac Short out,” Schuppan said.
“It’s about taking opportunities and he took it with both hands.
“He’s only 21 and has been in the system at Spotty for a number of years. This is his best innings in the context of the season… Hopefully it’s a turning point.”
The Woodsmen have to beat Hoppers Crossing and hope that Caulfield beats Malvern on Saturday in the final round to move into the top six and play finals.
For Schuppan, finals would be a huge bonus for the club in its first season in the competition.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” he said.
“Some of the guys like myself have played premier cricket against a lot of these guys, but for the younger ones they’ve got an enormous amount of experience out of it.
“It was a bit of an unknown. To have had the season that we have had especially before Christmas, shows that we can compete.
“We wanted to gain respect from the competition and I think we’ve done that. That’s all we were looking for.
“Finals would be absolutely fantastic.”
In other matches, Altona had a massive win against Taylors Lakes.
The A’s made 7-246 with skipper Adam Yates continuing his good form, making 75.
Taylors Lakes fell well short, bowled out for 171.
Yates took three wickets.
Yarraville defeated Malvern. Yarraville made 5-225 in reply to Malvern’s 5-223.
Ashane De Silva made 87 not out for the winners.
Williamstown fell just short against Elsternwick. Elsternwick made 7-208 before restricting the Seagulls to 8-193.
