Mooroopna has locked in a home final for the upcoming Cricket Shepparton Haisman Shield finals series following a gutsy two-wicket victory over a defiant Nagambie on Saturday.
A spirited half-century with the bat from Luke Nolan (64 runs) wasn’t enough to get the Lakers over the line as Mooroopna chased down the home side’s target of 165 with four overs to spare.
Ethan Anderson worked his way back into form with his first half-century of the season, while playing coach Luke Zanchetta (4-23) and Jack Gaskill (3-23) were the two standouts with the ball in another all-round team performance from Mooroopna.
Saturday’s round 13 defeat makes life tricky for Nagambie as it hunts a spot in the finals — with a victory, a bonus point and other results needing to go its way to ensure it makes it out of the regular season.
However, Mooroopna’s fate in finals is already sealed.
Zanchetta’s outfit, the two-time reigning premier, has moved into top spot on the ladder on the eve of finals action.
“It was a really pleasing win. I think Nagambie showed that they’re really unlucky to be missing out on finals,” Zachetta said.
“They’ve got some classy players, obviously both the Nolan boys, and they put on quite a competitive total ... once again it was another all-round bowling, batting and fielding performance from us.
“That guarantees us a home final, no matter what happens next week, which is massive.”
With Mooroopna chasing Nagambie’s competitive total of 165, the run chase always needed one solid contributor.
Anderson was the one to rise to the challenge.
The talented right-hander posted 58 runs from his 102 deliveries in an innings that consisted of five boundaries and two sixes.
“Young Ethan stood up with a real mature knock,” Zanchetta said.
“He took his time, didn’t take any risks and you could see that he realised it was easier the longer you stayed out there which he probably saw from Luke’s innings.
“It was really pleasing to see him bat well and get a nice score. He was one of the boys in that top four or five who hasn’t really been able to post a big score, so it was great to see him do that.”
THE GAME
Nagambie 165 (Luke Nolan 64, Mark Nolan 22, Luke Zanchetta 4-23, Jack Gaskill 3-23) lt Mooroopna 8-166 (Ethan Anderson 58, Jake Wright 38, Brodie McDonald 28, Jeewan De Silva 4-24, Brock Boddington 3-27)
STAR PLAYER
Ethan Anderson (Mooroopna): Zanchetta praised his side’s opening bat for his “mature knock” in chasing down Nagambie’s tricky 165-run total. It was Anderson’s maiden half-century of the summer and an innings that will no doubt boost the talent’s confidence ahead of finals.