Last season at Mooroopna Recreation Reserve, the Cats hosted one of the year’s more memorable clashes in a thrilling back-and-forth one-dayer under lights against Tatura.
On that occasion, Jack Gaskill blew his way through the night with a rapid-fire lower-order knock to carry Mooroopna home in a classic.
This time around, with Tatura again batting first, Gaskill stood up in a massive way again — with the ball this time — to set the stage for a potentially sizzling day two.
The home side was on top early through the relatively cost-effective removals of Preston Aurish and Lachlan Magee, but it was Josh Preston and coach Henry Barrow stepping up at first with Gaskill waiting in the wings.
It was, as on numerous occasions already this season, Daniel Coombs and Blake Armstrong who partnered up to set things right in the batting innings for Tatura, in need of some momentum after high-flying aspirations were met with a slump to kick off 2025.
The pair would meet their end on 40 and 33 respectively as Gaskill started to cook not long after being activated, and from there, Tatura experienced its share of turbulence at the crease.
The quick-fire removals of Nic Watt and Josh Catalano had the western visitors reeling with only skipper Jayden Armstrong and Darcy Brewer remaining, but the latter dug in firmly to hold almost five overs off without score as the former fought for runs.
It was a gripping final stand and one Mooroopna would have rather avoided as the first glimpses of twilight began to show with chances increasing that Tatura might somehow find a way through 80 overs.
The resistance was finally undone off a run-out, but Gaskill’s superb haul of six kept things firmly hanging in the balance as he and Joel May fought off three dramatic overs to leave it looking even at stumps.
THE GAME SO FAR
Mooroopna 0-1 (Joel May 1*, Jayden Armstrong 0-0) trails Tatura 204 (Jayden Armstrong 51, Daniel Coombs 40, Jack Gaskill 6-82)
Barrow, though, was willing to call it ever so slightly in his side’s favour.
“We’re probably pretty happy as we thought they might be closer to 240-250, so we’ll go in next week with plenty of confidence. I’d say it’s 60-40 to us,” Barrow said.
“There were probably a couple of things today where both sides could have done better, so it’s a really close game that’s still in the balance.
“Jack was awesome today and really led from the front. With such a young side, he stood up, and it was a real captain’s bowling effort.
“We figured that, if he can go out there and see off 18 balls at the end, he’s done a job for us, but there’s nothing stopping him from winning us the game with bat and ball.
“If we apply ourselves with the bat, there’s no reason we can’t chase 204 down here. It’ll take one big score within our top order to get us there.”
