McGahan knock sees Frenchville win

Frenchville’s Joe McGahan pulls with gusto in his 85 against Brothers on Saturday.

CHRIS ISON CI--

A BLISTERING 85 runs from top-order batsman Joe McGahan got the Frenchville Falcons home in a victory that should secure them the minor premiership.

Put into bat, Frenchville got into a spot of trouble early in the innings when crumbling to 4/37.

But McGahan, who batted at number four, stood tall and showed he wasn't going to hang around to let Brothers Southside bowlers dictate terms.

Coming to the crease after Brendan Handley, Brent Rothery and Trent Kenny had gone cheaply, McGahan set about his work of resurrecting the Frenchville innings with a carefree knock, scoring his 85 runs from 77 balls with 11 boundaries and two big sixes included in his match-winning display.

He did not complete the task alone as Jason Wells was also in good touch, sharing a partnership of 106 runs for the fifth wicket.

Wells was the more cautious of the two, building his innings from 85 balls before falling to Les Berryman for 63 in the Falcons' final over.

When Brothers finally got the wicket of Wells, the Falcons' total had topped 200 and his team was in the box seat.

Rob Fitzgerald was asked to do the bulk of the Brothers' bowling, taking 2/59 from 16 overs.

Frenchville then backed up with a very tight bowling display that ensured Brothers would not get near the total of 203 runs during their allocation of 40 overs.

Although Brothers were 2/78 at one stage, they had used all, but 13 overs to get there.

Karl Batey, David Goltz and Brock Siegert gave away just 33 runs from 17 overs between them, making the target of 204 runs for the victory well out of reach.

In the end, Brothers crawled to 8/113 from 40 overs with the side scoring just 17 runs while losing four wickets in the final 10 overs.

Murray Harch enjoyed a good start for Brothers with a knock of 44 runs from 54 balls, including seven boundaries, but the damage had been done by the tight bowling of Frenchville.

Most successful of the Frenchville bowlers was Brent Rothery whose three wickets cost him 36 runs.