Rayner gambles - and wins

OUCH, YODA: Marton tail-end batsman Bryant 'Yoda' Galpin gets a fast delivery from Tech's Paul O'Callaghan in a vital place. After taking a few necessary moments to recover, Galpin batted on to the finish of the innings.PHOTOS/RAE CLIFFE 091113WCRCCRICKET05

Three wickets in one over from Matt Burke Engineering Marton Saracens captain Dominic Rayner was the telling blow in a heavy lower order collapse which robbed St Johns Tech of victory in Saturday's Porter Hire Premier 1 round.

Having taken out much of Marton's lower order themselves at Victoria Park to restrict the visitors to 225-8, while coming off racking up over 300 runs the week before, Tech's new team would have been eyeing up their first win over the Marton side.

However, from a steady perch at 187-5 with 10 overs remaining, the young team with a handful of veterans was ripped apart to fall 18 runs short as Rayner took the gamble to bring himself back on with just two personal overs left up his sleeve and the other main bowlers having finished.

In his last six balls he got onto a hat-trick, then grabbed the third scalp with his final delivery while Tech folded in the following over, losing their last four wickets on 207.

"We weren't going to restrict them on run rate. It worked out in the end," Rayner said.

"Although, eight dropped catches didn't help us."

Saracens had travelled a similar road to Tech in that they made a very slow start before having a key partnership in the middle order between Bryce Grant (62) and Dan Gordon (44).

However, at 177-4 with a good launching pad for the slog, Marton faltered as Trent Hemi got amongst the tail, swinging the ball and working in some slow deliveries to keep the batsman guessing, bowling the veteran Chris Rayner.

Paul O'Callaghan also rattled the stumps as Hemi finished with 4-32 and was unlucky not to get at least another wicket from missed snicks.

What proved the difference between the teams was Marton's Dan Ford stuck in there with the tail-enders, protecting his wicket while adding some priceless boundaries off the back foot, finishing unbeaten on 57.

Tech had a similar start before Josh Roebuck (58) and Bevan Hunter (53) had them in good position, as Grant had bowled out to finish with 3-55.

Joining Tech for the day, Brett Field slogged a few before missing a straight one from Bryant Galpin, before Dominic Rayner decided it was now or never.

He trapped Peter Czerwonka in front and bowled O'Callaghan in consecutive balls, and while Hemi survived the hattrick he fell on Rayner's last delivery.

Jessica Watkin had watched all this happen at the other end, but she could not pull the match out as she was caught for Gordon to pick up his second wicket in the next over.

Across the park, Bayer Marist had pleasingly got themselves up to a full complement of 11 players this weekend, but without veteran captain Mark Fraser were always going to struggle against competition leaders Property Brokers United.

And so it proved as United went through the first round of games unbeaten after a straightforward eight wicket win, wrapping up the run chase of only 138 in 26 overs, despite not having key batsman Tom Lance due to a leg injury.

Marist were even lucky to have that much on the board as United's bowlers sent down 33 wides in total, with opener Brett Cameron (36) and allrounder Fraser Kinnerly (33) providing the main resistance by the actual batsmen.

Dylan Martin had a profitable six overs with figures of 4-20, while Brendan Walker took 3-28, despite bowling his last few overs with a thumb injury.

It was destined to be another short afternoon as opener Chris Sharrock shored up an end to finish on 60, while Max Carroll was there at the end unbeaten on either 49 or 50, depending which scorecard is considered.