A half-century on one leg from skipper Cooper Matheson powered Wangaratta Magpies to victory over rivals Rovers United Bruck in their A grade clash on Saturday.

His 51 from just 49 deliveries at the top of the order laid a strong foundation for the ‘Pies to chase down the Hawks’ 127 target in 31 overs with five wickets in hand.

It was the Hawks’ first loss in one-day cricket this season.

Winning the toss and bowling first on a green-tinged but true deck at WJ Findlay Oval, the ‘Pies produced a disciplined and consistent bowling effort to strangle the Hawks.

The first blow came from a mistimed pull shot from Charith Perera off Chris Clement, before Akhil Kumar (3/16 off seven) and David Killen (2/27 off nine) would attack the pegs.

No RUB batter would make more than 20 runs before being sent back to the pavilion, but the real damage was done in the 19th over, which saw Killen clean bowl the set Reid McNamara for 19 before catching the edge of Ryan Parson’s bat the very next ball.

While the hat-trick ball was kept out by Michael Honman, the game was broken wide open - suddenly, the Hawks went from 3/63 to 5/63, and the Magpies had the momentum.

Despite handy knocks from Matt Whitten (20 off 50) and Blake Nixon (20* off 30) the Hawks were feeling the pressure, exemplified by the two run outs the ‘Pies were able to affect through the innings.

With their main rival bowled out for a sub-par total, Magpies skipper Cooper Matheson could only praise his bowling attack.

“We went in with a solid plan with the ball, and executed it really well,” he said.

“The pitch actually played well - we were a bit worried about it at the start, that’s why we bowled.

“They had it resurfaced, you can see the different turf they laid out, it looked a bit sketchy but it was hard underneath.

“We changed to just trying to bowl more of a two-day line and length early, in the past few weeks we’d been chasing too many wickets and you leak runs when you chase wickets.

“So we stayed patient with the ball, make them make the mistakes.

“It worked out really well for us.

“Something we try to push is our fielding, fielding’s going to win you games at the end of the day.

“I feel like we should’ve saved another 20-odd runs in the field, so there’s always room for improvement, but from where we were fielding at the start of the year to now has changed a lot.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the ‘Pies in the chase, with Matheson suffering from cramps to both legs for the majority of his punishing innings of 51 from 49 balls.

His boundary hitting (eight boundaries, one six), alongside his hobbling between the wicket with Tyler Nanson, kept the ‘Pies well ahead of the asking run rate.

Missteps came from players trying to force the issue, with Nanson (12 off 17), Harkaran Mann (one off 10) and James Thewlis (two off eight) all removed cheaply.

Ultimately, the Hawks just didn’t have enough on the board, with Jack Davies (10* off 38) and David Killen (13* from 34) steering the chase home after 31 overs.

Reid McNamara was the clear pick of the Hawks’ bowlers, the young spinner finishing with 4/34, while Blake Nixon picked up 1/31.

“Ideally, we would’ve liked to get it two or three down, not five, we had a few wickets just hole out to the deep,” Matheson said.

“It’s good we’re starting to gel a little bit more now.

“We’ll go into next week and hope we can get another win going into finals, and lock and load from there.”

In other matches, Yarrawonga Mulwala were too good for Ovens Valley United, bowling the Tigers out for 156 defending 163.