WESTBURY all-rounder Richard Howe put his hand up for man-of-the-match honours and the Ricky Ponting Medal after adding a half-century with the bat to his six wickets with the ball to help put his side on the verge of victory in the 2014-15 Cricket North grand final yesterday.

The Shamrocks resumed their first innings at 3-33 in reply to South Launceston’s total of 68 and were eventually dismissed for 191 just before tea on the second day.

Westbury lost early wickets to be 7-98 at one stage before Howe and Jonathan Chapman put on what was arguably a match-winning 71-run partnership for the eighth wicket to help the Shamrocks build a valuable lead of 123.

Howe top-scored with 50 off 116 balls which included six boundaries, and Chapman also batted well to make 37 off 88 balls with four fours. Josh Adams contributed 25.

Warwick Johnson picked up 3-50, Casey Young 3-24 and Kyle Bowie 2-47 with the ball for South.

The Knights set about chasing down the deficit and setting a target for Westbury to chase in its second innings with a positive approach in its second innings.

Opener Chris Hay was batting well as they reached 3-73 off 16 overs but the loss of captain Nathan Philip for 18 at 4-101, triggered a late collapse which saw the Knights lose 4-14 before stumps.

Hay top-scored with 62, off 94 balls, but apart from that the South batting line-up failed to fire for a second time and was staring defeat in the face at stumps at 8-115, still trailing by eight runs with only two wickets in hand.

The Shamrocks’ bowlers did the job for their captain as they have done all season sharing the wickets with Chapman taking 2-35, off 11 overs, Joey Cullen 2-11, off 7 and Michael Lukic 2-8, off six.

‘‘It was a pretty good finish to the day but it’s been a pretty strange old game to be honest so far,’’ Westbury captain Dane Anderson said yesterday.

‘‘We’ve still got a couple of wickets to get and then chase down how ever many runs we have to hopefully.

‘‘Another good performance from our bowlers who stuck at the task really well and we will hopefully be able to go out and win the first session tomorrow.’’

Anderson praised the rear-guard action by Howe and Chapman with the bat.

‘‘That partnership was crucial in setting the game up and these blokes have been doing the job for a while,’’ he said.

‘‘They came pretty hard batting in their second innings in a polar opposite to the first and were going well for a while but we were lucky enough to get some wickets late.

‘‘A couple more would be good but they still have some batting there with Ben Austen and Casey Young so we’ve still got work to do in the morning.’’

South coach Liam Devlin was disappointed with his side’s fortunes over the first two days but acknowledged Westbury’s good play.

‘‘I thought we stuck at it and worked hard when we bowled today and didn’t give up which was good and Chrissy Hay batted really well for us which were positives for us,’’ he said.

‘‘Richard Howe and Jonno Chapman batted well together as they have throughout the year and we didn’t give them the game they took it away from us.

‘Westbury bowled well in the first innings and kept the pressure on us – they had our measure and were the better side on the day.’’