Coach Daniel Coombs was the star of the show for the Bulldogs, reeling off a classy 69 to see his team to a strong first-innings total of 170.
The Tatura bowlers then went to work, with a balanced display having them dismiss United for 80 to secure the much-needed victory.
Coombs said the win served as great reward for his team after a lean period coming out of the Christmas break.
“It definitely feels like a long time ago since we won a game, it has been a bit of a tough run for us and losing a close game the week before it was good to finally register another win and, hopefully, we can finish the season strong,” Coombs said.
After a promising performance against Numurkah the previous week, the Bulldogs started brightly with the willow as Coombs quickly went about building a platform from number three.
Backing up his 64 the previous week, the Tatura coach was again in the zone, seeing off the good balls and punishing the bad as he looked to get his team above 150.
Some handy contributions by Jayden and Blake Armstrong helped continue the Bulldogs’ momentum, as they went into the innings change with a healthy 170 on the board.
Coombs said it was fantastic to see how much his team had improved with the bat during the course of the season.
“I don’t think the wicket was particularly easy to bat on, we just went into it trying to bat out the overs and we managed to put the bad balls away and rotate the strike,” he said.
“The last few weeks have been really promising for us with the bat, earlier in the season we really struggled to put those big scores on the board which probably cost us games, so hopefully we can build on the past fortnight and have more success next year.”
With plenty of runs to play with, the talented Tatura bowling attack quickly got to work in the second innings, sharing the love with six different wicket-takers.
The Armstrong brothers were their usual damaging selves with the new ball, combining for three early wickets, before the likes of Lachlan Magee (3-20) and Will Russell (2-10) took control to wrap up the United innings.
Coombs said confidence was high among the group after taking some significant steps forward this season.
“There has been significant improvement with our team this year which has been exciting, we have a really young side and after having a couple of years of not winning a game, to win four this year has been incredible,” he said.
“We have also had three or four really close games that with a bit more experience we might have won, but overall, it has been a promising year and there is a lot of talent in the group that is only going to get better.”
THE GAME
Tatura 173 (Daniel Coombs 69, Jayden Armstrong 21, Mahesh Kodamullage 1-18) d Shepparton United 80 (Lachlan Magee 3-20, Will Russell 2-10)
STAR PLAYER
Daniel Coombs (Tatura): The Bulldogs coach continued his hot run of form with a crucial first-innings half-century. Serving as the anchor, Coombs was impressive from his first ball, negotiating a tough wicket and finding opportunities to score. With his team struggling to put together match-winning scores with the bat all season, this purple patch would be incredibly satisfying for Coombs as he continues to build on this exciting young core of players.
