In day one, Pomonal restricted and bowled Halls Gap out for 83 off 54.4 overs, putting Pomonal in a prime position heading into day two with only 19 runs behind the total and with two wickets down. 

Halls Gap captain Luke Stevens said the team made it hard for themselves. 

“We probably chose pretty poorly. 

“We chose to bowl first a lot this year and we had a bit of a discussion about it earlier in the week and we thought no matter what the circumstances were, we would bat first,” Stevens said. 

“In hindsight, this was probably the one week where we probably wanted to bowl first – so we just made it hard for ourselves at the start.” 

The loss of early wickets to Halls Gap certainly didn’t help its cause and hindered its chance of setting up a competitive total. 

“Our top order sort of failed to fire again,” Stevens said. 

“The pitch was soft underneath, which made the bounce a bit variable, and you had some that kept low and others would kick up off a length – so it made it difficult at the start of the day.” 

Meanwhile, Buangor-Tatyoon and Youth Club will meet again in a thrilling day two as the combine sits 17 runs ahead in a low-scoring affair. 

Youth Club were bowled out for 51, but that didn’t dampen their spirits as they returned to bowl the combine out for 68. 

Youth Club captain Nic Baird said there were plenty of positives – especially after making such a low total. 

“Sometimes you think trying to defend 51 … (is) not worth it,” he said.

“But the whole XI stayed right up and felt we were a real chance – even in most of the day we thought we could bowl them out for less or keep them very close to our score, which we did.” 

Buangor-Tatyoon captain Michael Harricks said it’s all to play for in day two. 

“Obviously they have some really strong batsman who can take the game away from us so we need to bowl like we did on Saturday,” he said. 

Youth Club will resume on day two at 1-6. 

Swifts-Great Western won on forfeit when Aradale couldn’t field a team. 

In B Grade, Navarre made 6-164 and defeated Halls Gap when they made 6-161. 

Pomonal made 7-141 but that wasn’t good enough as Buangor-Tatyoon scored 3-151. 

It was a close game between Swifts-Great Western and Chalambar. 

Chalambar won the toss and made 4-190, while Swifts-Great Western just fell short and made 9-184.