By Tara Murray
Bacchus Marsh dug deep to put itself in a good spot to claim the Ballarat Cricket Association premiership this weekend.
The Bulls weren’t able to deliver their best performance with the bat or ball against Wendouree on the first two days, but were still able to do enough to lead by 61 runs after the first weekend.
Bulls coach Sam Crea said they would have taken that after the first two days of play.
“It feels weird having a first innings lead and knowing that we could still not win the game,” he said.
“We spoke on Saturday before the game on what we would have liked and if you said 60 runs in front we would have taken that, that’s for sure.”
Wendouree won the toss and decided to bat at Eastern Oval.
It was bowled out for 178 in the 64th over. Mick Nolan top scored with 49.
Crea and Josh Calvitto took three wickets each for the Bulls,
Crea said it wasn’t their best performance.
“We dropped a few chances,” he said. “We let them get away early and they were 2-100, around that mark.
“We bowled well in patches, but bowled a lot of boundary balls. It’s something that we have to fix for this Saturday.
“It wasn’t a great performance but to keep them to 178 after dropping a couple of chances, we are happy.”
After losing an early wicket, the Bulls were able to set a good foundation with the bat through Ian Spiteri and Alex Porter, who top scored with 54.
At 1-125, the Bulls were on top.
“We were looking at a relatively big total,” Crea said. “They took that first wicket and were able to restrict the runs.
“It was difficult to score and I think we lost 4-10. We managed to get to 9-182.”
Having secured first innings points, the Bulls were keen to try and give themselves as big a lead as possible.
Matthew Crea, who dislocated his finger on day one, and number 11 Calvitto stuck around to push the score to 239.
Calvitto finished 37 not out off 28 balls.
Sam Crea said it was an innings of a lifetime from him. Calvitto is batting a particularly torn ACL and MCL.
“He made 37 off 28 balls including four big sixes,” Crea said. “He has worked as hard as anyone with the bat, so I’m not surprised that he cleared the fence like that.
“He is one of our cleanest strikers at the club.”
Crea said they would have liked to have been a few more runs ahead heading into the second weekend, but they would take it.
He said the approach heading into the second weekend is simple.
“We will look to switch off and come Saturday the game is at nil-all,” he said. “We will look to bowl well and restrict the runs and then back ourselves to get the runs.”
