Central Park-St Brendan’s rips through Tatura to go one step closer to Haisman Shield glory

Put plainly, if the Bulldogs had dreams of an upset, Central Park-St Brendan’s quickly turned them into a footnote.

In a ruthless display of finals cricket, the Tigers flexed their muscle at Deakin Reserve, rolling Tatura for 152 on day one before hunting down the target with the efficiency of a side that knows its best cricket is still ahead of it.

The seven-wicket triumph, that took just 50 overs to reach, preceded some serious Tigers batting practice where Tyler Larkin racked up an unbeaten ton and Mitchell Brett was not far off a second bat raise.

However, for Larkin’s charges, it all started with the ball.

Tatura, a rank underdog, scrapped but never truly settled despite Lachlan Magee (42) getting the visitors off to a flying start.

At 1-66 off 13 overs, the Bulldogs were taking it to the Tigers — and then some.

But when Dwain Vidler rattled Magee’s off stump with a peach of a delivery, the house of cards Tatura had been assembling came crashing down as the visitor shipped five wickets for 24 runs.

Young talisman Blake Armstrong (43), batting at six, showed resistance in a lonely fight, but the Tigers’ bowlers probed, pressed and then pounced, cutting through the middle and lower order to leave 152 looking distinctly undercooked.

It was yet another sparkling day for Central Park’s veteran brigade, with Jarrod Wakeling (4-57) leading the line with Ramadan Yze (3-36) and Vidler (2-51) in tow.

And if Tatura’s total was below par, Rhiley Lau wasted no time making it look even smaller.

The opener peeled off a commanding 75, flaying the Tatura attack to all corners before his dismissal at 1-116 just before stumps.

The writing was on the wall.

Day two was merely a formality, if not for a few fleeting Bulldogs highlights and a few hours of classic batting at Deakin Reserve.

Central Park-St Brendan’s put the foot down, chasing the 37 required runs in no time before Larkin and Brett fancied cutting the strings.

Both batters took their time to ramp up the scoring rate, but once the tap was turned, the runs flowed as Larkin brought up his half-century with a romping pull shot for six in the 65th over before Brett lofted his blade six overs later.

Shortly after Larkin notched his first A-grade hundred of the season the Tigers called time at 3-319 to wrap up a win dressed with the kind of ruthless efficiency that’ll make opposition teams nervous.

Larkin was pleased with the end result, but stated Saturday’s opening with the ball was far from perfect.

“I think our first 40 minutes yesterday were honestly pretty poor,” he said.

“They came out pretty positive, it was a good batting wicket and they were going along at a fair clip there and, at 1-60, we were starting to get a little bit worried, but we had the belief in us that if we could just take a couple of wickets it might stem the flow.

“I suppose it just shows the maturity of our team to get those couple of wickets and, after we got that second one, we really tied them down and played the style we wanted to play.”

Larkin labelled his side’s experience as “invaluable” in the grand scheme of finals cricket and the wicket of Magee proved to be a line in the sand moment for the Tigers.

“A lot of us are lucky enough to have a lot of finals experience and, after that second wicket, we wanted to slow the game down and play it on our terms a bit more,” he said.

“We probably should’ve went to that a little bit earlier, but the group showed enough maturity to play that way after we managed to get that breakthrough.

“It’s good signs moving forward, but we know we’ve got a couple of big weeks ahead of us, hopefully.”

Lastly, Larkin spoke about the importance of banking hours in the middle as Central Park-St Brendan’s goes in pursuit of a Haisman Shield grand final berth.

“To have a 100-run opening stand partnership, I don’t know the last time that’s happened for our club, but I know it’s definitely been a while, so it certainly makes the batters in the middle order feel more comfortable when they come out,” he said.

“That partnership was crucial to the win and I’m very happy for Rhiley to get some runs and ‘Barns’ (Andrew Boyington) doing his job at the top of the order as well.

“It’s invaluable to spend time at the crease, particularly at this time of the year.

“We wanted to go out there and play as if we had a total on the board that we needed to chase and Mitch and I were lucky enough to get some runs which was good.”