IN a repeat of round one of the Portland and District Cricket Association only one of the two A grade games went ahead in round two on Saturday, with the Portland Tigers making it two wins from two starts.

The Tigers got the better of South Portland on Saturday at Cavalier Park while Tyrendarra now has to wait another week to play their first game of the season after their match against Gorae-Portland, fixtured at Tyrendarra, was a wash out.

It has been a solid start for the Tigers team who made quick work of South Portland, keeping them to just 56 runs in their 19 overs and chasing down the score in 12 overs.

South struggled to get off the mark in their first game of the season, with Rory Barry giving their best performance with the bat, scoring 17 runs.

It was another solid partnership from Portland Tigers’ opening batsmen Michael Blomeley and Will Hardie who put on a 32-run partnership to close in on South’s total.

Llewellyn Oakley helped finish the job, putting on 11 runs alongside Hardie to close out the game.

While the team responded strongly with the bat, captain Will Oakley said their bowling efficiency was a standout.

“We got some pretty important early wickets; we managed to get Mitch Arnold out, I think it was the second wicket, so we had two out for not many,” Oakley said.

“They didn’t really get a roll on from there and we were able to keep the runs low, we fielded and bowled really well.”

Joel Askew was at the forefront of the Tigers attack, claiming 4-6 from three overs while Jake Davies and Joel Hollis also took two wickets each.

“I think Joel planned to play a bit of B grade this year and help the younger guys out, but when he’s playing as well as he is he kind of picks himself in A grade,” Oakley said.

“He’s happy to play A grade and he’s clearly playing well.

“Jake also bowled really well (2-12 from four), he’s followed on from his form last year and Joel Hollis (2-11 from three) was really good too.

“Will also kept them low on runs early so that helped us a lot.”

With an impressive opening innings Oakley said the aim was to not seize up with bat and look for shots when they could.

“The message was more to go out there and have a crack, we wanted to make sure we were still scoring reasonably quickly, we didn’t want to go slow,” he said.

“The idea was go out, bat freely, but don’t do anything stupid.”

B grade

Tyrendarra defeated Gorae-Portland in their B grade clash on Saturday with the Darras earning the victory on their home wicket.

An impressive bowling stint from Joe Halliwell (four wickets) and a big innings from Chris Wilson with the bat (36 runs) helped Tyrendarra chase down the win.

Go-Ports kicked off the batting and recorded a solid 86 runs in their 20 overs, with Jake Heafield and Devon Miles both piling on 18 runs each.

Despite early wickets dropping for Tyrendarra with their openers both gone with only eight runs on the board, Wilson came out and paired strongly with Shae Rhodes and then Reece Williams to get the job done.

• Portland Tigers showed strong form in both grades on Saturday with their B grade side also toppling South Portland at Cavalier Park.

South Portland won the toss and elected to bat first, notching up a 90-run total off the bats of Brian Marshall (23 runs), Troy Warburton and Adam Thompson (14 runs each).

Despite the solid run total, Portland was able to get chase down the score with just four batsmen with Ian Faure and Glenn Brewster piling on 41 runs each to finish the game.

• The match between Heywood-Drumborg and Portland Colts was recorded as a draw.

The game was originally scheduled for Henty Park but was moved to Heywood, however rain brought an early end to the contest.

Drumborg-Heywood batted first and scored 4-97 from the full 20 overs, with Taine Morris (24) and Matt Rowney (43) putting on 47 for the first wicket, with Kayden Edwards (2-10 from two overs) was the most successful bowler.

The match was well-balanced when it was cancelled with Colts 1-65 from 13.3 overs – needing another 33 runs from 6.3 overs.

Geoff Blackmore top scored with 25, while Karsen Edwards (24) and Ash Elijah (7) were the not out batsmen.