Merbein South on the rise in SCA

MERBEIN South First Division captain Ethan Gray hopes his side can build on the momentum of their 41-run victory over Mildura East at the weekend.

The Saints’ second win of the season came on the back of a career-high 106 from 109 balls by Gray and equalled their win tally from the 2018-19 Sunraysia Cricket Association season.

It was Gray’s first win as captain after he missed the side’s round 4 victory over Coomealla Wentworth.

“It’s definitely a big positive for us, to know we’ve got that in the bag if we need,” Gray said.

“It’s good to get two wins earlier in the season and hopefully bigger and better as the season goes on.

“The boys are starting to play really well together, we just need to settle the side for the two-day games and see where it ends up at the end of the season.”

On his own innings, Gray was pleased to go on with it after getting a start.

The opener was the sixth wicket to fall when his side was on 164, having had good partnerships with Sashika Fernando (48 runs) and No.3 Hamim Miah (45).

“It was a nice little bit of icing on the cake,” Gray said.

“I felt good after the first few overs, I got a couple of rusty shots out of the way early and after a while I got comfortable and just needed someone to hang around with me.”

With the ball, import left-arm orthodox bowler Cam Grimwood backed up 20 runs with the bat with 3/19 with the ball coming on as first change.

“He’s surprisingly handy with the bat compared to what his resume was, but he’s been very handy for us with the ball,” Gray said.

“He’ll definitely hold up an end for a long period of time in the longer formats.”

Now the Saints host fourth-placed Nichols Point in a two-dayer starting this weekend at Chaffey Park.

“It should be a good measuring stick to see where we are at against the top half of the table,” Gray said.

“I know they are in pretty good form with the bat at the moment, we got close to them in the Twenty20s but a two-day game is a whole other story.”