Mulgrave wins Holzer Shield Defeat Glen Waverley in a tight contest

Top side Mulgrave have shrugged off a last round home and away loss to win the Holzer (B Synthetic) Shield for Season 2022-23. They defeated rivals Glen Waverley who finished second to them on the ladder at the end of the season. Glen Waverley were minor favorites going into the match having defeated Mulgrave in their only other encounter for the season and having lost only one match for the season (they played two fewer games than Mulgrave). Glen Waverley won the toss and batted first. Skipper Gene Saultry (15) and David Kemp (19) got the innings off to a positive start. When Saultry was dismissed, scoring slowed to a crawl while Mulgrave’s bolwers dominated at both ends. Middle order pair Bradley Nicholson (35) and Gary Hansen (29) played some attacking shots to put the innings back on track to post a defendable score, but it wasn’t enough as the lower order fell away cheaply. Star of the Mulgrave effort was skipper Sam Rupasinghe who claimed a season-best 6/24 and made a critical 20 runs in the middle order to steer his side out of batting trouble.

It was, however, game on early during the run chase when Glen Waverley’s openers Andrew Fitzgerald (3/22) and Jack Pearce (2/49) skittled the top order to have Mulgrave at 3/19. But the Mulgrave middle order settled and with contributions by Chameera Wickramasinghe (32), Udhara Perera (30), Rapasinghe and Pramod Govinnage 26*, Mulgrave overhauled the target in the 58th over to claim the Holzer Shield for Season 2022-23.