YACKANDANDAH overcame the loss of three early wickets to notch a comfortable victory against Dederang at Dederang on Saturday.
The third versus fourth clash looked as though it would be a walkover for Yackandandah after it skittled the home side for just 67 runs last week.
But at 3-7 it soon became apparent the runs weren’t going to come easily.
In the end a classy 61 from Graeme Martin proved the difference between the sides with opener Michael Barnard (19) the only other Yackandandah batsman to make double figures.
Skipper Tom Russell said he was always confident of getting the win, even after the poor start.
“I had a lot of confidence in our guys, we bat all the way down the order,” he said.
“It was good knock from Martin that got us over the line in the end.”
Yackandandah stalwart Mick Walker took 5-16 to be among his team’s best players along with Martin.
Russell said his team’s confidence was sky high with one round remaining before finals.
“We’re just taking it one game at a time at the moment but we’re hoping we can go pretty deep into finals,” Russell said.
“We’ve still got (all-rounder) Jack Best and opening batsman Josh Mathewson to come back in.”
At Bethanga Wodonga Raiders held off a stubborn Bethanga outfit to cement their spot in finals.
The Raiders looked poised to defend their first innings total of 175 comfortably but were made to sweat after Bethanga duo Brad Taylor and Haydyn Roberts struck up a 68-run partnership for the seventh wicket.
When Taylor came to the crease Bethanga was languishing at 6-39 but he and Roberts got the team back on track before Roberts was dismissed — bowled by James Sammon.
But when Taylor was out stumped a short time later Bethanga’s chances of pulling off an upset win plummeted.
Kiewa put in an admirable performance despite going down to New City.
Chasing a mammoth total of 314 the home side fell 22 runs short.
