In the final game before Christmas the Dogs declared their innings closed before play with just a 15-run lead.

The Raiders again battled against the ladder leader’s attack, with Jesse Griffiths in his first game this year the best with 47 to leave Wodonga the task of getting 138 off 16 overs.

In a T20-like display, Wodonga made a good fist of the target but still fell seven runs short.

Opener Trent Ball said they gave it a crack.

“Outright wins are just so rare, so hard to get that we just had to have a go at it and stayed positive all day,” he said.

“To Raiders’ credit they dug in and defended with the bat, then put everyone back on the fence when we batted and it turned into tip and run, looking for twos from just about every single.

“We needed 10 an over from the last 10 overs and with two overs to go needed 20 to win.

“An outright win would have really set us up for the rest of the year but it turned out we were just a handful of runs short.”

Outright wins are just so rare, so hard to get that we just had to have a go at it and stayed positive all day. To Raiders’ credit they dug in and defended with the bat. TRENT BALL