ONLY suffering a reverse outright loss next Saturday will deny Maiden Gully its first win of the Emu Valley Cricket Association season.
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In a massive upset, the Gully has already taken first innings points after day one of its clash with Emu Creek at Maiden Gully on Saturday.
The Gully took first innings points, despite making a score of just 151 after being sent in.
The bulk of Maiden Gully’s runs were scored by Brett Haw (52) and Lachlan Mickan (44).
Apart from Haw and Mickan, Alex Gorrie (15) and Rob Brown (11) were the only other Maiden Gully players to score in double figures.
Gorrie and Haw, who hit seven fours in his 52, put on 57 for the first wicket, but the Gully was unable to build any partnerships of significance for the rest of the innings, which ended in the 36th over.
Michael Checkley snared 5-23 for the Emus, who went into the game still a chance of playing finals.
Leigh Byrne (2-28) was the other multiple wicket-taker for the Emus, who after a positive start to their run chase surrendered meekly to be all out for 115, having one stage been 0-55.
The Emus had four players make ducks, while captain Daniel Chamberlain was absent.
Opener Shane Hamilton top scored with 32 for the Emus, followed by 25 from Byrne.
Haw followed up his half-century with the bat by taking 4-13 off 5.3 overs with the ball.
Skipper Shane Rabbitt claimed 3-20 off six overs for the Gully, who have won just three of their past 34 games, the last being against Axe Creek in round five last season.
Maiden Gully is 0-4 in its second innings after batting four overs before stumps.
• United’s Andrew Collins fell 19 runs short of what would have been his second double century in four games after cracking 181 against Marong.
With their position in the top four in jeopardy, United slammed 6-303 declared off just 65 overs at Marong Links Oval.
Collins crunched 13 fours in his knock of 181, which came 42 days after he smacked 211 against Axe Creek.
Collins’ innings ended with the score on 288 when he was caught by Nic Burns off Adam Brown.
The opener now has 570 runs for the season at an average of 63.3.
Fellow opener Josh White (51) made his third consecutive half-century, with he and Collins putting on 79 for the first wicket.
Collins also shared in a 115-run stand for the second wicket with captain Forbes Klemm (33).
The other key partnership Collins was involved in was 60 for the sixth wicket with Patrick Hartney (24 n.o.).
Brown (2-52) was the only multiple wicket-taker for the Panthers, who went to stumps at 0-7 off seven overs and with a massive task ahead of them next Saturday.
• Spring Gully has given itself a chance of ending its season with a major upset.
With Nigerian speedster Saheed Akolade leading the way, the Crows routed Sedgwick - the EVCA’s most dominant batting side - for 109 at OTH Oval.
In his third game for the Crows, Akolade bagged 5-16 off 13 overs, including five maidens.
Akolade was well supported by skipper Alex Sutton, who claimed 2-25 off 16.3 overs.
Among Sutton’s two wickets was Sedgwick dangerman Matt Dwyer for a duck.
Only Corey Jones (36), Steven Stroobants (32) and Jordan Ilsley (16) scored in double figures for the Rams.
The Sedgwick score would have been much worse had Jones and Lachlan Woodward (3 n.o.) not added 35 for the last wicket.
After bowling the Rams out in the 42nd over, the Crows batted 28 overs before stumps and will resume next Saturday at 4-58, needing 52 more to win.
Adrian Hicks (16 n.o.) and Andrew Renato (4 n.o.) will continue the chase for the Crows.
• West Bendigo needs to chase down Golden Gully’s 8-265 at California Gully Oval to be a chance of making finals.
No Golden Gully batting details were supplied, but the star of the innings was Nathan Hamblin, who made 153.
The leading wicket-taker for West Bendigo was Ben Manning, who claimed 4-45 off 15 overs, while Dion Prange picked up 2-39 off nine.
• There was no play in the Mandurang v Axe Creek game at Pearce Reserve.
They will play a one-day match next Saturday.