A FINALS appearance in their return season to the RDCA Lindsay Trollope Shield is up for grabs for Ainslie Park, now they have to take it.
The Parkers, who have a slight hold on fourth place, will be out to defend their first-day total of 263 against fifth-place Mooroolbark at Ainslie Park Reserve when play resumes this Saturday.
A win would see the Parkers all but safe in fourth spot entering the final round.
With the Parkers batting first, Trent Sier (47) held the Parkers' innings together to see them sit at 4-103 at tea. After tea, teenager Brad Wadsworth (51) and Darren Walles (40) batted sensibly to see Ainslie Park arrive at their final score.
Matt Whittaker (4-69) and Daniel Dimitriou (4-50) bowled tirelessly for Mooroolbark.
Parkers captain Mark Arnot said his side still had to work hard with the ball to snare the vital win.
"It's not an unbeatable score, it guarantees we will still be in the game until later in the day," he said. "The ground is really quick, we will need to take all 10 wickets."
Arnot said it was time for his bowlers to stand up and perform after some inconsistent performances during the season.
"On our good days we can bowl nice tight lines and now it's down to us to do that if we want to make the finals," he said.
Arnot also praised the batting of Wadsworth, Sier and Walles along with the tail, who put on almost 100 runs for the last three wickets.
"The good thing is it has come down to this stage — if we beat Mooroolbark we know we deserve to be in the finals, if we lose then we will know we are not quite up to that standard yet."
Warranwood's Andrew Spittle (4-20 including four wickets in five balls) had South Warrandyte in all sorts of trouble early to see the Hawks stand at 5-27. Damien Vozzo (62) and Robert Bowen (60) then combined to see South Warrandyte finish at 187.
Bayswater Park lost wickets consistently throughout the day to be bowled out for 137 off 54 overs against South Croydon.
Matthew Parker (46) top scored for the Sharks and Travis Degenhardt (3-31) was the main wicket taker.
In reply, the Bulldogs were 4-57 at stumps with Michael King on 29 not out.
Croydon North's Jade Boyd (113), Ryan Hayres (29) and Chris Noy (29) had the Knights looking good at 2-134 against North Ringwood.
Michael Scott ( 7-50 off 21) had other ideas and Croydon North lost 8-71 to be dismissed for 205.
Wantirna South will resume next week at 0-22 chasing Norwood's 163.
Ben Hastie (41) top scored for the Vikings and wickets were shared by the Devils bowlers.
The annual Twenty20 match between Ringwood CC and the RDCA will take place on February 20 at Jubilee Park, Ringwood at 5pm.
This year's charity is TLC for Kids.
There is one match left in the season after this round of matches.