Winning the toss, the Saints elected to bat.
Tocumwal started taking the pace off the ball to make the Berrigan big hitters make their own pace.
This plan was working well, but unfortunately for Tocumwal they let themselves down in the field, dropping four chances in the first 10 overs.
This resulted in a forceful start for the Saints, with openers Matt Ross (23) and Connor Thornton (59) bringing up the Saints’ 50 in quick time before Ross was caught with the score on 51 off the bowling of Reilly Rennick (2/84) by a brilliant catch by Josh Wraight.
Thornton passed his 50 before being caught behind after the introduction of Andy Arthur (3/21), who struck twice in quick succession, following up two balls later with the dismissal of Luke Melville (0) bowled.
Jacob Bartlett and Andrew Parr continued the scoring for the Saints, pushing the score past the 100 mark.
Runs were easy to come by for the Saints pair before Christina Roberts removed Parr LBW for 22 to leave the Saints at 4/140.
Lochie Conboy (3) fell shortly later, and it was an evenly poised game, with the score at 5/151.
Berrigan kept building partnerships but Tocumwal kept chipping away with Roberts and Tom White contributing with a wicket each.
Rory Bartlett joined Jacob in the middle and together put the Saints back on top, pushing the score towards 200 before Jacob (45), Rory (28) and Jeremy Packer (0) were all removed in quick succession to have the score at 8/203.
Tocumwal thought they were right in it after the trio of wickets.
But some good hitting from the tail allowed Berrigan to get to 249 all out after 64 overs.
Adding another 46 runs to the Saints’ score were Whelan (11), Grant Martin (31) and Graeme Parr who finished eight not out.
Rennick was extremely unlucky but bowled fantastically for figures of 2/84.
Andrew Lean (3/56) and Andy Arthur (3/21) were the top wicket takers.
Tocumwal had 16 overs to bat and got off to a poor start, losing two early wickets.
They started in trouble with Peter Harrison (0) caught and Liam Sutton (3) bowled by Jacob Bartlett (3/25).
The Saints were in control at 2/8.
Tom Oliver and Rennick combined to dig the Bloods out of trouble and rebuild, with Oliver scoring 36 off 30 balls.
They looked comfortable with the scoring rate increasing and Oliver attacking any short balls.
But then he was caught for 36, and Tocumwal were then reduced to 3/46.
Rennick and Hayden White saw out the remaining overs of the day to finish at stumps 3/54, with Rennick on 13 not out and White on zero not out, going into the next week.
With a good wicket and plenty of batting to come, Tocumwal have a chance to chase the target down this week if they apply themselves, while Berrigan will look to defend their total.
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