One of Merrivale's finest batters bowled his side to victory on Saturday in a commanding Warrnambool and District cricket triumph against Mortlake.
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Longtime Tiger Josh Stapleton, who is the side's second-highest run-scorer after nine rounds with 186, claimed a rare five wicket haul as the Tigers dismissed the Cats for just 87 after posting 190.
The all-rounder previously hadn't taken a wicket all year and finished with impressive figures of 5-12, snaring five of the final six wickets.
He also struck a valuable 30 batting at number four.
Merrivale captain Joe Kenna was delighted with the result.
"It's fantastic, to win by 100 is really good," he told The Standard.
"We've been out of form I feel like and probably not at our best and to come back with a 100-run win with the boys is fantastic. I feel like we're still only at 80 per cent and we can go to that next level.
"...next step, next week and go again."
Tyson Hay, who skippered Terang in the South West cricket competition last season, top-scored for the Tigers with his first half-century for the club.
The classy number five made 56 to help his seventh-placed side secure its fifth win of the campaign.
Kenna praised Stapleton for his player-of-the-match performance and was thrilled to see Hay's hard work at training pay off.
"He's been trying real hard at training and that," he said.
"...you could see today he can play, he's a good player. It was good to see him make some runs."
Hay was pleased with his contribution after an admitted "rough start to the year".
"It was nice to chip in, hopefully I can keep it going for the rest of the year," he said.
"I'm pretty happy with how I went about it today."
Matt Hughes
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
