Wangaratta Magpies are all but locked in for a finals appearance after handing Ovens Valley United their second loss of the one-day season at McNamara Reserve on Saturday.

After putting 202 all out up on the board from 40.3 overs, the Wangaratta bowling cartel went to work, dismissing the Tigers for 181 in just 39 overs.

There was plenty of heat heading into the match, with the Magpies listing Harkaran Mann, previous Tiger, to face his old squad.

After winning the toss and batting, Wangaratta’s top order proved to be the difference, with plenty of prolific partnerships between the top four.

Openers Cooper Matheson (31 from 36) and Tyler Nanson (46 off 67) put on 71 for the first wicket, and while Nanson couldn’t stick around much longer, imports Akhil Kumar (48 off 32) and Mann (34 off 41) would add 60 runs to the total together.

With the Magpies sitting pretty on 3/157, the wheels started to come off, with none of the next seven batters making more than 13 runs each.

The ‘Pies would limp past 200, with Ovens Valley’s Joe Monk (4/32 off 8.3) and Geeth Alwis (3/29 off eight) the pick of the bowlers.

Magpies’ skipper Cooper Matheson said while it was a positive to see his team post a sizeable total, he’d prefer they bat the overs out.

“The way we bat at the top, me and 'Nanno' [Tyler Nanson] are pretty aggressive, and Akhil is a natural scorer,” he said.

“I think we just lost wickets too easily in the back end, it was a very hard pitch to get going on, the ball would stay low and the odd one would pop a little bit, so you had to adapt to your conditions a bit, so we’ll work on that.

“As a top four, we spoke about it, one of us needs to bat 30-35 overs and really be the anchor in the innings and give the lower order a chance to do what they do.

“‘Bottles’ [Nic Bonwick] goes out and has a swing, and it’s been working well when we’ve had that bloke who’s in, but we didn’t really have it on the weekend.

“We just lost all of our wickets in clumps which is something we want to try and avoid.”

With the runs on the board, the bowlers came on to defend, but it was tough going early.

The bowlers took some time to settle into their rhythms, but when spin came on, the match went into overdrive.

James Thewlis (4/26 from nine) and Harkaran Mann (2/33) spun a web around the Tigers, with only Geeth Alwis (47 off 58) and Noah White (55 from 68) looking comfortable at the crease.

The Magpies’ fielding efforts saw them secure two run outs and heap the pressure on the chasing Ovens Valley.

“We bowled bad early, but then we stuck to our plans – we sort of lost the plot early, there was a fair bit happening out on the ground and everyone was a bit all over the shop at points,” Matheson said.

“Credit to Noah and Geeth, they both batted well.

“Noah batted really smartly, didn’t give us any chances, and Geeth was just Geeth.

“Harky ended up bowling spin for us, he bowled his cheeky little offies.

“Spin was definitely the go, and with ‘Stebba’ [Nick Stebnyckyj] not playing, we didn’t have that second spin option, so Harky put his hand up to do it and do it well.

“We tried to do that as much as we could, and it worked in our favour, Jimmy was unreal, he’s always reliable.”

The weekend results have the Magpies sitting fourth overall, with matches against the Lakers (third) Rovers United Bruck (first) and Beechworth (fifth) still to come.

“We’ve got a pretty tough run home, so it’ll be good to see how we match up against everyone going into the back end,” Matheson said.

“Ideally, we’d want to try and finish second, I think we’re only a game from second, so if we can pinch two or three wins and maybe get a home final, that’ll be ideal.”