Mornington breezed to a seven-wicket victory over Court House at Woseley Park.
Court House was sitting in second place, one spot ahead of Mornington heading into the match-up, however, the tables turned on Saturday afternoon.
Jye Hicks and Brodie Cleal opened the batting and formed a decent partnership of 24 runs before Rhyce Kliendienst picked up Cleal’s wicket.
Sam Doubleday (1) and Blake Small (0) fell shortly after giving Mornington plenty of reasons to celebrate.
Under 13s representative Keaton Walters continued his hot run of form, scoring 31 runs before being caught by Joshua Langdon from Lachie Straney’s bowling.
A bottom order collapse saw 18 runs scored from the remaining six batters.
Hicks and Walters 31 runs each helped the side set a reachable total of 102, all out in 30.3 overs faced.
Mornington’s wicketkeeper Andrew Johns was a highlight behind the stumps, taking a screamer to dismiss Keaton’s father Ken from Straney’s bowling. He backed it up with a stumping, sending Braithen Winsor packing for a two-ball duck.
Straney was the standout from Mornington’s bowling attack, taking a five-for in his seven overs bowled. He finished 5-16 with three maidens.
It was Straney’s first five-wicket haul for the season, taking his total to seven wickets in five matches played.
Nick Millar ended the game 2-25 along with wickets from Kliendienst, Henry Johns and Aidan King.
After a strong performance out in the field, Mornington sent Justin Carter and Millar out to bat. While Carter remained at the crease right until the very end, it was a nervous few overs to start the innings.
Millar fell for 4 runs and Langdon fell shortly after, leaving the side 2-6.
A 54-run partnership between Carter and Henry steadied the ship as Mornington stood at 3-60 following the dismissal of Henry for 25.
King came in at third drop, scoring 17 runs and seeing out the remainder of the game as Carter was one run shy of his second, half-century of the season. With seven matches played, Carter holds an average of 29 runs per innings with a total of 145 runs scored this campaign.
Mornington has now overtaken Court House for second place on the Gunnedah District Cricket Association ladder as teams head towards the pointy-end of the season.
The semi final match is set for March 5 with the grand final following a week later on March 12.
Mornington will face the Kookaburras this Saturday at Kitchener Oval with the first ball at 1pm.
The Kookaburras will be hoping to make a late run towards the finals as the team sit in last place, although a win for Mornington will take the side a step closer to clinching a semi-final spot.
