David Anderson
SALE-MAFFRA had a highly successful Melbourne Country Week (February 13 -17) despite not making the final.
This year was the 100th anniversary edition of the tournament. The tournament sees senior men’s cricket representative teams from across the state converge on the city, to play matches against fellow country cricket associations.
The Sharks returned home with three wins and a loss.
Five teams had those same results, the others being Geelong, Leongatha, Mornington Peninsula and Ferntree Gully.
The latter two got to play in the final thanks to bonus points and net run rates; Ferntree Gully was the ultimate winner.
On Monday (February 13), Sale-Maffra took on Bairnsdale.
Bairnsdale batted first and scored a creditable 199. Jack Rietschel led the bowlers with three wickets.
The Sharks chased this score down for the loss of six wickets. Jack Tatterson (77 not out) and Ben Jones (30) were the best with the bat.
Tuesday saw Sale-Maffra come up against Bendigo.
Batting first, the Sharks were able to accumulate 8/269 off 50 overs. Openers Zac Hurley (104) and Tom Morrison (69) put on 150 for the opening stand.
Tatterson with 53 put up his second half-century in as many outings.
Bendigo found the going rough early, being 6/91, but the tail added a further 127 to get the team total to 218.
Rietschel with four wickets again led the bowlers; Steve Spoljaric and Dylan Bolton lent support with two each.
Photo: Contributed
Day 3, Wednesday proved to be similar to Day 2, but in reverse.
Mornington Peninsula, batting first, reached 7/272 after being 6/203 off 43 overs.
The 70 runs conceded off the last seven overs were to prove costly. Tatterson’s three wickets were the best return.
In reply, Sale-Maffra slumped to 6/79; Hurley with 28 was the only top-four batsman to reach double figures. A middle-order recovery, led by Ben Jones (54) and Brad Scott (66) lifted the final score to 213 all out.
Needing something resembling a miracle on Thursday to make the final, Sale-Maffra took on Traralgon, a team that had convincingly defeated the locals in the Gippsland Cricket League (GCL) final just a few weeks earlier.
The Sale-Maffra team got a modicum of revenge when they amassed their best score for the week (279) and then dismissed their rivals for 201.
Hurley with 91 capped off a good week. Tatterson, Jones, Adrian Burgiel and Rietschel all scored 29 or better in quick time to post the second-best total ever achieved against Traralgon.
Scott, Bolton and Spoljaric all returned two wickets in the 78-run victory.
Photo: Contributed
Sale-Maffra ended up second in the Blue pool.
Hurley, with 242 runs at 60.5, ended as the tournament’s highest run-scorer (final excluded).
Tatterson was sixth and Jones 12th in that same list.
Rietschel ended with nine wickets, equal third in the bowlers list; Tatterson with seven wickets was equal fifth, to earn an unofficial ‘leading all-rounder’ title.
Sale-Maffra wicket keeper Jed Malone was third-best in the keeping dismissals list.
Tatterson’s efforts with the ball brought his senior representative wicket tally to 104, only the fifth Sale-Maffra bowler to go past 100 senior wickets (Country Week and senior GCL combined).
Bolton and Rietschel seem destined to join that exclusive list next season, having brought their personal totals to 98 and 94, respectively, over the course of the representative season.
