Nathan Millar made the most of a rare opportunity to wield the willow while Brad Jenkinson broke his wicket drought as Albion fell agonisingly short of wrapping up first innings points against Mornington.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Some late resistance scuppered their hopes with Mornington to resume next Saturday at 9-54.
They have a mountain to climb though after Millar helped lift Albion to 3-186 off 35 overs.
James Mack also chimed in with 31, Jenkinson 29no and Luke Ryan 34no before skipper Andy Mack, wanting to give his side a shot at first innings points, called a halt to their innings.
“I was looking to get around 160, to get 180 was pretty good,” Mack said.
He said Millar was good at the top of the order.
Usually batting down the order, it was only his second bat for the season.
“We haven’t really required him, the top order have done the job,” Mack said.
“We were down an opener today so I thought we’d give him another hit.”
Describing him as a bit, “a bit of a dasher”, Millar made his intentions clear early.
”He hit his first ball over cover,” Mack said.
“He thought it going for four but the old Wolsely outfield did a trick on him.”
Having to settle for two on that occasion, Millar hammered eight boundaries and a six in his knock.
Chasing quick runs, Mack sent Ryan out “to try and hit a few”, which he did, he and Jenkinson putting on 47 in seven overs.
Ben Hennessy was the pick of the Mornington bowlers with 2-49.
He and Stan Gaynor then made a promising start to Mornington’s run chase but the momentum swung when Hennessy was run out.
Mack conceded it was a turning point, the wickets flowing regularly after that.
“The run out got things going for us,” he said.
He thought they might have been a chance to pick up first innings when they claimed the ninth wicket in the third last over, but Mornington were able to bat out the day.
“We’ll come back next week and try and pick that up pretty quickly and push on from there,” Mack said.
Jamie Eveleigh (3-11) and Hayden Baker (2-5) did the bulk of the damage.
Jenkinson (1-18) snared the other wicket, getting one to nip back and rattle Billy Flynn’s pegs.
It was his first wicket in five games and elicited a little fist pump.
“It was only a matter of time. You can’t bowl that well without any luck and reap any rewards,” Mack said.
There wasn’t a lot in the wicket when they came to bowl, but he thought the bowlers did a good job.
Mornington to their credit batted quite well at the start too, he said.