WANGARATTA Magpies A grade cricketers continued their dominant form to close out the home and away season on top of the WDCA ladder, wrecking Benalla Bushrangers by nine wickets at the Wangaratta Showgrounds on Saturday.
Tight bowling held the home side in good stead, dismissing Benalla for 96 runs before chasing down the total in the 15th over.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, the Bushrangers were in trouble early, with Matt Gathercole dismissing opener Michael Honman for a duck.
A stand between Greg Hoysted and James Carboon showed some life, but the pressure created by consistent dot balls proved too much to handle.
Magpies skipper Jack Davies said the performance with the ball was a good sign ahead of the semi–finals this weekend.
"We were able to bowl to our field and build dot ball pressure, and eventually created chances and wickets," he said.
"We set a field, and if you can bowl to that, it creates more pressure and they've got to try and take risks – I think we executed that perfectly on Saturday.
"We didn't really have a goal to set out and keep them to a certain score, we just wanted to get our game plan right and play the way we wanted to play."
Matt Gathercole was the standout bowler, taking 3/9 from his 7.5 overs, with Jimmy Thewlis picking up a handy 3/10.
With a small total on the board, Magpies only needed three batsmen to get the job done – Cooper Matheson belted a quick 14 runs, before Jarryd Wallace (27 not out) and Pranav Menon (58 not out) got the side home with ease.
The Magpies will face Delatite in the semi–finals this weekend, eyeing off a grand final showdown with either Rovers United Bruck or Yarrawonga Mulwala.
"Obviously we're optimistic of where we're at, we've given ourselves a chance so everyone's keen to put our best foot forward next week," Davies said.
"We know it's a game of cricket and you've got to be the best side on the day, and anyone in the top four can win, we believe.
"We just did what we needed to do and played the way we wanted to play, and take that into next week, a bit of confidence for next week."
