East Gambier will enter day two at Allan Scott Park holding a good position over North Sportsman’s in the Mount Gambier and District Cricket Association Barber Shield.
Winning the toss and having a bat did not exactly go the way North planned on Saturday.
Liam Turley was quick to get into the action taking the first wicket of the day in his second over.
Turley caught Mathew Robinson LBW on four as North conceded an early wicket which set the tone for its innings.
Michael Johnston backed up his mammoth unbeaten century last round against Mil Lel with a 12 ball duck.
Johnston fell to the bowling of East Gambier captain Alex Hentschke, edging to the keeper Alex Hill.
Elliot Fisher and Alex Hutton tried to build a partnership which could take the match back into the Tigers’ favour and it looked promising early on.
Unfortunately for North Fisher perished at the hands of Marc Roberts, with Hentschke taking the catch.
Hutton followed soon after for 11 becoming Connor Little’s sole wicket of the day with Hentschke taking another catch.
Brad Robinson and Nichols Brown built North’s best partnership of the match, both getting settled at the crease.
But it was Emerson Marks who made the breakthroughs and became the first multiple wicket taker of the match.
Brown was the first to go for 15, with Marks finding the gap between bat and pad and bowling Brown, while Marks took the catch off his own bowling to snare the wicket of Robinson who had looked dangerous for his 25.
Marks started to dominate with the ball taking the match away from North Sportsman’s completely.
Declan Kenny was caught on two off the bowling of Marks, while Thomas Madigan fell in similar fashion for six with Roberts taking the catch.
Tim Young could also only manage six runs before being dismissed by Marks, as he was caught behind by Alex Hill.
Marks’ bowling had been rewarded with a fifer, finishing with figures of 5/16.
And at nine down North knew it did not have enough runs, Isaac Mulraney was batting well but was running out of partners.
The Tigers innings came to an end when Theo Telford failed to make it back to his crease in time with Liam Turley running him out.
Mulraney was left 10 not out with North finishing its innings 10/99, proving once again the difficulty of batting at Allan Scott Park at the moment with no side in the past four innings going past 100 at the venue.
It was Emerson Marks’ day with the ball but the rest of the bowling attack all kept it tight with Alex Hentschke, Marc Roberts, Liam Turley and Connor Little taking a wicket each.
East Gambier had 24 overs to bat out for the day and it almost started in disaster with Ben Robinson being dropped first ball of the innings.
Robinson and Dion Stratford recovered from the early scare to bat out the overs, on the brink of the close of play North took a massively important wicket.
It was Elliot Fisher who provided the breakthrough with Stratford caught on 17, Robinson finished the day eight not out and Alex Hill still on 0 after three balls.
At 1/27 East Gambier requires 72 runs next week as North Sportsman’s will be hoping for early wickets to stay in the match.
