Luke Ryan showed little sign of any rustiness as Albion's batsmen finished off what James Mack had started the previous week to secure a first innings win over Mornington at Wolseley Oval on Saturday.
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Taking over from Will Maggs (17no) as Albion resumed on 0-52 in reply to Mornington's 121, Ryan, playing just his second game this season, proceeded to blast 60 and steer them to first innings points inside 33 overs.
"LR played extremely well out of nowhere," Albion skipper Brad Cady said.
"He set the tone early."
The position they were in enabled Cady to give him a chance at the top, and Ryan made the most of it, smacking seven fours and two sixes.
Albion went on to reach 6-235 before Cady called them in with Damien Baldwin hitting 28, Zach Martin 35 and Mark Ewington an unbeaten 18 after Cady (41) had added 10 to his overnight tally.
Their efforts on the first day set the win up for them.
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"The week before we did well to bowl them out for 120. We toiled hard all day," Cady said. He and Maggs then successfully negotiated about an hour.
"That was a big part of how we could attack yesterday (Saturday). We had wickets in hand," he said.
The efforts of Ryan, and then Baldwin and Martin in the middle order meant they were also able to launch late.
"We scored about 25 runs in the last two or three overs which was enough to get us over the line to attack for the outright," Cady said.
He wanted to get a couple of hours at them.
"My plan always for an outright you need a minimum of two hours and 100 runs," he said.
They couldn't quite get there with Mornington digging in to finish at 6-78.
As he was in their first innings Henry Johns was solid at the top hitting 17 while opening partner Sandy Frend made 20 before Ben Hennessy (19no) and Damian Blinman (3no) took them through to stumps.
"I thought we bowled well, we just struggled to take early wickets," Cady said.
He said they probably didn't quite hit their mark in the first 10-15 overs, but paid credit to the Mornington batsmen.
Ash White and Mark Ewington both snared two wickets, and Gary Briggs and Jamie Eveleigh one apiece.
"As a team we're starting to get better. Everyone knows their role and we're playing to plans," Cady said.
It was a hard slog for Mornington in the field. They threw all bar the kitchen sink at Albion, using 10 different bowlers. Corey Matthews and Blinman were the most successful claiming two each. AJ King and Alasdair Hewitt shared the other two.
