Murphy followed his 128 against Axe Creek last round with 112 as the Panthers scored 229 against Emu Creek at Marong Links Oval.

Murphy came in with the Marong innings in tatters at 3-8, but his knock ensured the Panthers’ bowlers have a reasonable total to defend this Saturday.

Helping Murphy guide the Panthers out of their early trouble was Scott Ross (31), with the pair putting on 83 for the fourth wicket, while Murphy also shared in a 68-run stand for the fifth wicket with Andrew Gladstone (23).

Anthony Collins (2-39) picked up two of the early wickets for Emu Creek. Justin Hancock (3-32) also bowled well.

Shane Hamilton took 2-32, including the key wickets of Murphy, who was caught by Daniel Chamberlain, and Gladstone.

Emu Creek went to stumps at 0-8.

● Mandurang captain Warrick Behrens smashed his first century for the Rangas, blasting 134 against Golden Gully at Tannery Lane.

It was a run feast for the Rangas, who made 370 against the bottom side.

Behrens’ 134 took his tally of runs for the season to 406 at an average of 58.3.

Also getting amongst the runs for the reigning premiers were opener Cain Ladiges (56), Ben Rodda (56), who made his third half-century of the season, and Michael Healy (49 n.o.).

Shane McMillan took 3-51 for the Cobras, who bowled just nine maidens in their 74 overs.

● Spring Gully has given itself a chance of upsetting the undefeated United at Ewing Park.

The Crows, chasing their third win in a row, compiled 262, and at stumps had the Tigers 1-21.

Spring Gully had three of its top four batsmen pass 50 – Jaryd Wishart (57), opener Des Gilmore (52) and captain Ricky Mannix (51).

United’s Alexander Collins had another good day with the ball as he took his third bag of five or more wickets for the season.

Collins bagged 5-98 off 24 overs and now has 28 wickets for the season.

The Tigers faced nine overs before stumps, losing Andrew Gaul (5) lbw to Peter Stepien.

● Sedgwick scored 9-229 against Axe Creek at Catholic College.

After losing opener Jordan Sparks (5) with the score on 12, the Rams got solid contributions at the top of the order from Brock Watts (53), Scott McKenzie (44) and Ken Gorrie (34).

The leading wicket-taker for the Cowboys was Daniel Saaghy (3-31), while in his first game of the season in the first XI, Rob Rojewski took the wickets of Watts and Gorrie as he finished with 2-16.

● A tight bowling performance from West Bendigo restricted Maiden Gully to a score of 162 at Evolution Oval.

No.3 Jason Lee played a lone hand for Maiden Gully with his 81, with Rob Brown (23) and Marc Brownlee (22) the only other players to make double figures.

Boe Bish (3-41) continued his good form with the ball for the Redbacks, and Dion Prange (2-23) and Joel Kinsman (2-24) took two wickets each.