Gallery | Nagambie’s Mark Nolan stars during first day’s play against Tatura in Haisman

The round 13 fixture at Frank Howley Oval saw fifth-placed Tatura requiring a victory to guarantee finals as seventh-placed Katandra nips at its heels.

Nagambie, on the other hand, sat in second place heading into the match and was looking to keep its form firing as the Lakers head into another finals series.

Tatura won the toss and elected to bat on a muggy Saturday.

A mix-up in the second over saw the hosts stumble for the first time as opening batter Lachlan Magee was run out for a golden duck.

Seasoned veteran Daniel Coombs came in at number three and quickly calmed the situation out in the middle for Tatura as he began to tick runs over for the hosts.

Nagambie’s star all-rounder Nolan continued his relentless attack of off-stump throughout the day.

Tatura was sitting relatively happy at 3-70 before Coombs nibbled at a Nolan tempter.

The ever-safe hands of wicket-keeper Luke Nolan did the rest and the Tatura player-coach departed for a well-made 38 runs off 84 balls.

From here, Tatura’s day took a turn for the worse as a steady stream of wickets proceeded to tumble.

No batter could get accustomed to the conditions as Mark (5-50 from 20.3 overs) ran rampant with the ball and Luke (four catches) was kept busy behind the stumps.

Tatura lost 7-40 to end the innings as the hosts were bowled out for 110.

Nagambie player-coach Zac Winter-Irving said it was pleasing to see his side hit their straps in the lead-up to finals.

“Mark bowled really well, especially his second spell,” Winter-Irving said.

“He picked up another five wickets again, which is good to see.

“Now is the time of the year you want to see everyone with all cylinders going.

“To keep them to 110 on that ground is an excellent effort by the boys.”

While Nolan may steal the headlines with another five-for, Winter-Irving credited a young gun Laker for his effort with the ball to help start Tatura’s collapse.

“One of our first changes James Auld, he probably didn’t get as many wickets as he deserved,” he said.

“He was probably the turning point.

“He was able to hit a rhythm there and we choked them up a bit.

“The wicket started to play a few tricks and got into (the batters') minds.”

With plenty of time remaining in the first day’s play, Nagambie took a considered approach to the start of its innings and it paid dividends.

The Lakers struck 83 runs before one of their openers (Benjamin Tarran who made 53 runs off 87 balls) departed on the eve of stumps.

Winter-Irving said he was impressed with how his openers denied Tatura any chance of a comeback late in the day.

“They were pretty positive, Ben played a pretty aggressive innings actually,” he said.

“They probably killed the game with that 80-odd opening partnership.

“It was excellent from those boys who probably haven’t had that kind of opening partnership this season.

“They have really set the game up for us and I couldn’t give them enough credit.”

Next Saturday, Nagambie requires 24 runs for victory and will look to push on with the bat while Tatura will have to pull off a miracle if it is to keep its finals fate within its control.