Tara Murray
Eynesbury produced one of its best ever performances to knock off Wallan in the Gisborne and District Cricket Association Johnstone Shield on Saturday.
An understrength Eagles took on a full strength Magpies, who had entered the match undefeated, and the clear standard in the competition.
It meant little once the first ball was bowled, with the Eagles causing a massive upset.
Eagles president Tristian Francis said there was plenty of excitement in the group following the match.
“I did say to the guys in the group chat that against a full strength Wallan, that was their best team, to do what we did it was one of our better wins in our history.
“It’s a pretty big call, but we were undermanned with one of our top bowlers Josh Francis out and as well as some others.”
The Eagles batted first and made 4-197 from their 40 overs.
Cameron Price top scored with 73 not out off 62 balls, while skipper Shaun Collins hit 47 at the top of the order.
Francis said they would have taken that at the start of the day.
“Anything around 160 is something that we could bowl at,” he said. “Pushing 200 it was going to be hard to chase on our ground.”
The Eagles knew that the wickets of Kieran Aitken and Bryan Vance would be the keys.
Aitken fell in the first over and fellow opener Jack Mifsud was also back in the sheds early.
Vance though threaten to take the game away from the Eagles.
“They got a good partnership,” Francis said. “We were able to get Vance out for the first time this year, we were pretty happy with that wicket.
“Everything went right. We gave up one chance with the bat… but we didn’t drop a chance.”
Collins completed a stunning all round game, taking 4-29, including the wicket of Vance.
Matthew McMullen on debut bowled well without taking a wicket, while Francis said the efforts of youngster Mitchell Shankland in the field helped contribute to the win.
The win has the Eagles in sixth spot, but one one point separates them and fourth placed East Sunbury.
Only Riddell, that is 15.5 points behind the Eagles, is probably the only team out of the finals mix at this stage.
Francis knows that their finals hopes are in their own hands.
“We have spoken about it,” he said.
“We need to continue to win games, so we do have the opportunity to possibly play finals.
Have some losses and all of a sudden we’re in the relegation battle, that is how close it is.”
In other results on Saturday, Broadford beat East Sunbury and Kilmore was too strong for Riddell.
