A sensational all-round display from Yarrawonga Mulwala’s Ben Welsh has brought a premature end to the Wangaratta Magpies’ season.

Welsh entered Saturday’s A grade semi-final at Stan Hargreaves Oval as the in-form batsman of the competition, with a century, two 50s and a 49 to his name over his last six knocks.

Coming in at number three, he would again pile on the runs to finish with an unbeaten 86 not out off 120 balls to lead the Lakers to an 82-run win.

Wangaratta Magpies captain Cooper Matheson said despite his team’s best efforts with the ball, Welsh was a class above.

“We bowled very good, it was probably one of the better bowling displays we’ve had in the last three or four weeks,” he said.

“Benny’s been in some serious touch with the blade, every game we’ve played him, he’s made over 50 against us and he came off the back of a ton last week and had another day out.”

The Magpies sent Yarrawonga Mulwala in to bat and made regular inroads at the end not occupied by Welsh throughout the innings.

Fraser Smart (22) and Brock McCabe (21) were the only batsmen to hang in with Welsh as the home team sat at 6/135 with eight overs remaining.

But a 53-run last partnership had momentum in the hands of the Lakers at the innings break, pushing their score to 6/188 thanks to a quick 23 off 28 balls from Zac Fraser.

Akhil Kumar would finish with figures of 3/38, which could’ve been much better if not for 10 wides.

With a big task ahead of them, Matheson did his best to lead from the front playing in his signature free-flowing style to get to 25 off 20 balls, including five fours.

He wouldn’t score any more though as Wangaratta lost three wickets in quick succession, including the loss of Harkaran Mann for a duck.

Kumar (31) and James Thewlis (20) would dig in for the Magpies putting on a 50-run partnership.

At 3-79 Kumar would be caught off the economic off spinners of Devlin Webb, and the wheels began to fall off the rails.

Jack Davies would be caught behind the very next ball as the away side lost their last seven wickets for just 27 runs to send their season to a crashing halt, bowled out for 106.

Matheson said it was a disappointing display with the bat that ultimately ended their season.

“Every time we lost a wicket we wouldn’t just lose one, we’d lost two or three… we lost 4/3 at one stage,” he said.

“It was hard to get anything moving from there really and they were just too good on the day.”

Webb would finish with 3/21 in his nine over opening spell while Welsh would chime in for 3/16 at the end of the innings.

Matheson said the club had a successful year overall making the T20 grand final and the semi-finals and hoped they would be able to retain mid-season recruits Kumar and Mann for another season.

“It was great to have them on board, learn a bit of them as a club and hopefully as individuals it makes us better cricketers as well,” he said.

“We’ll try and get them back, it will just depend on whether their cricketing calendars align with ours.

“But if not we’ll try and get one of their mates over, they’re involved in a pretty big cricket community over in Canada so it’s good to get involved with them.”

The Lakers will face Rovers United Bruck in the grand final next Saturday, to be played at Benalla Gardens Oval.

Other senior grade deciders will feature Delatite vs Yarrawonga Mulwala (@ Baarmutha Park, Beechworth), Merton vs Rovers United Bruck (@ Bill O’Callaghan Oval) and Beechworth vs Yarrawonga Mulwala (@ WJ Findlay Oval).