On an intriguing day ball prevailed over bat, little separates West and East Gambier in their heavyweight final round duel in the 2021/22 Hoggies Wines Barber Shield at Malseed Park.
Played in front of past club legends from victorious sides of the fifties, seventies and eighties, the Roos hoped to show why they are one of the favourites to win the modern day title after getting first use of the surface.
However, it was the Bulldogs’ deadly new-ball duo of Alex Hentschke and Liam Turley putting on a clinic with the shiny Kookaburra.
In the space of three overs the pacemen used their left and right-arm angle to knock over Jack Geddes, Justin DeJong and Jake Blackwell for the cost of a single run.
At 3/9 the Roos were skating on thin ice early and Alex Hill and Sam Willis showed maximum concentration to the cause.
Only one scoring shot was possible from their first 23 balls together as Hentschke and Turley continued to ask probing questions enjoying assistance from a sporting pitch.
Willis thought he ground his way through the tough period by scoring the first boundary of the day in the 14th over, only to fall in the final over of Hentschke’s spell.
West needed someone to show some application and the side found an answer in the form of Bray Stephenson.
Stephenson was patient enough to keep out the good balls, but punish the bad ones to not only guide the Roos out of the sticky situation, but get the scoreboard ticking over slightly.
By his side was the resolute Hill, who put a high price on his wicket scoring 15 runs from 17 balls until he was brought undone by the leg-spin of Ben Hentschke.
West’s middle order was flummoxed by Hentschke’s spinning cobras as he also removed Sam Coxon and Kyal Chapman cheaply to put the hosts in severe danger of being bundled out for a meagre total at 7/61.
Stephenson then took matters into his own hands and targeted cow corner with great effect.
He built important stands with Tim Hill and Steven DeJong to push the Roos beyond triple figures which brought about a huge sigh of relief in the pavilion.
Stephenson reached a hard-fought 50 from 104 balls, but after more than two hours at the crease his vigil was broken by Ben Hentschke.
The leg-spinner had returned to the attack with a job to do and he nailed it taking the final two wickets in quick time to limit West to 118 and walk off the field standing tall with the ball in his hand after taking 5/40 from 13.5 overs against his old club.
It left East with 25 overs to negotiate before stumps and despite being keen on making inroads into the small, but tricky target, found scoring tough.
The Bulldogs were trickling at less than two runs an over and lost both openers Leigh Von Duve and Ben Hentschke to Stephenson and Sam Willis respectively before the close of play.
