Three straight wins to finish senior country week in B-section for Great Southern Cricket Association

Great Southern Cricket Association first XI ended senior country week strongly with three straight wins to finish fifth, avoiding relegation in B-section. The B-section side lost their opening two fixtures to end their hopes of making the semifinals but bounced back to win their final three games including their fifth and sixth playoff on Friday. Great Southern faced South Midlands in the playoff game on Friday at Charles Veryard Reserve and prevailed by eight runs in the Twenty20 fixture. Shane Willmott scored his first career half-century to lead the way as Great Southern were bowled out for 152 in 17.2 overs. Nine boundaries were among Willmott’s 51 from 45 balls while James Barritt added 20 and Ethan Caldwell made 19 at the top of the order. In reply, South Midlands could only manage 142 off 16.3 overs with Willmott capping a superb game with 3-12 and Clint Gilbert adding 2-16 in the win. Great Southern won their crossover game against Warren-Blackwood on Thursday at Stan Twight Reserve by four wickets, the win ensuring they avoided the relegation game on Friday. Nathan Willmott snared 4-60, Jedd Herbert took 3-26 and Ricky Marris added 2-18 as they bowled Warren-Blackwood out for 138 batting first. Contributions from Herbert (30), Gilbert (28) and Kyle Sinclair (25no) helped Great Southern finish on 6-139 from 44 overs. A brilliant innings from Flynn Cristinelli guided his side to a comfortable 105-run win in their final qualifying game on Wednesday at Stan Twight Reserve. Cristinelli made 98 from 150 balls, which included 11 fours and two sixes, but his innings came to a controversial end two short of a century, given out in a tough lbw decision. Barritt added 54 and Herbert made 53 as they posted a mammoth 3-259 batting first. Keegan Berry was the pick of the bowlers with 4-36 and Jack Batchelor took 3-32 as South Midlands made 154 all out. Sinclair, in his first campaign as captain, said he was proud of his team’s efforts “We had a pretty good week and we were very unlucky not to have made the semifinals,” he said. “The crucial game against Uppers ended up costing us, a few things didn’t go our way that day. “We finished the week with three wins in a row which gave us reward for our efforts and we had a lot of contributors with both bat and ball.” Barritt was Great Southern’s leading run scorer with 162 while Nathan Willmott was their leading wicket taker with 13, including a five-wicket haul on day one. We had a pretty good week and we were very unlucky not to have made the semifinals.