Mt Barker begin their quest for back-to-back premierships with dominant win against Railways

Mt Barker started their premiership defence in dominant fashion with a 62-run victory over Railways in round two of the Albany and Districts Cricket Association A-grade competition on Saturday.

The reigning premiers posted 234 as senior cricket returned to turf wickets before they ran rampant through the Tigers bottom order.

The Bulls won the toss and elected to bat, scoring freely early with openers Mitch Wood and Alexander Fergie sharing in an 86-run stand.

It was not until the 19th over that the Tigers had their first wicket as Wood was dismissed for 43.

Fergie and Seth Davis combined for 41 more runs before Fergie (52 runs) was caught out five balls after notching a half-century.

Davis was trapped in front for the next wicket, but the Bulls steadied once more with Nathan Crudeli and captain Jeremy Wood digging in for a 48-run partnership.

Wood was knocked over by Coen Marwick and James Gardner came to the crease with the Bulls at 4-185.

With six overs remaining, Gardner wasted no time in getting to work, hitting 25 runs off 15 balls in an innings which included two sixes.

Tigers’ Mohit Jaggi took the last two wickets to round out the innings.

The run-chase got off to an unfortunate start, with Tigers opener Billy O’Meara lasting two balls and Milan Jaggi out lbw for just three runs.

With the Tigers stumbling to 2-17, Marwick and Mohit Jaggi put together a gallant 54-run partnership as they sought to mount an unlikely upset.

However, when Marwick was run-out by Davis and Mohit Jaggi was caught for 27, the Bulls had tightened their stranglehold on the game with the score at 4-91.

It took another 10 overs for the next wicket to fall, with Harry Goldsmith and Alan Pietersen adding 25 before Goldsmith was caught from the bowling of Craige Anning for nine runs.

Andre Sutherland and Lachlan Tindale were both dismissed without troubling the scorers and despite late cameos from James Coad (10 runs) and Jordan Gibbs (13), the Tigers fell well short.

Bulls’ Jonte Eastough (2-29) and Anning (2-18) were the pick of the bowlers. Tigers’ Milan and Mohit Jaggi returned impressive figures of 2-26 and 2-31, respectively, in the losing side.