Yenda’s finals flame extinguished

Cricket

YENDA'S faint finals hopes were officially put to bed on Saturday after a dismal performance with the bat against Exies at West End Oval.

After bowling out Exies for 129, the Jets completely crumbled late in the day to end up 8-38 at stumps, leaving their dreams of jumping into fourth spot in tatters.

Exies captain Marc Tucker bagged an amazing six wickets as he led 18 overs of carnage that tore through almost the entire Yenda line-up.

"We thought if we got a couple of wickets before next week it'd be good but we definitely didn't expect to get eight," Tucker said.

"They didn't bat too good so I guess we did get a bit of help from them."

Jets skipper Matt Bruce's decision to turn his side's batting order upside down proved ultimately pointless as his intended nightwatchmen were sent back where they came from in the blink of an eye.

Only one batsman, Tom Spry (11), made it into double figures.

Bruce and key bat Peter Vardenega (zero not out) were the men left at the crease when play concluded in a small mercy for the Jets, who needed a win to stay in contention for a finals position.

Not that it mattered much anyway, given Hanwood had already claimed first-innings points over Leagues across town at Ted Scobie Oval ending the Jets' brave bid for fourth spot.

Now the attention turns to the possibility of an outright win for Exies, who look set to jump into the top two and earn the right to a second bite of the cherry in the finals.

"Hopefully it doesn't rain and we can get a full game in," Tucker said.

"We need to get those next two wicket real quick and maybe send them back in or bat again ourselves.

"An outright before the finals will boost our confidence a lot."

A modest Tucker, who ended up with frugal figures of 6-17 from his nine-over spell, said he was "lucky" to get the wickets he did.

"I didn't go too badly, but Mark Semmler (2-21 from nine) was bowling well too, so we had pressure on them at both ends," he said.