Central Park-St Brendan’s ticks Katandra off the list, but the vigilance is far from over in Tyler Larkin’s eyes

He recognises that if his side is to go deep in this season’s Cricket Shepparton Haisman Shield charge, nothing but the best will do.

The Tigers defeated Katandra without any major scares on Saturday, chasing down the Eagles’ total of 137 in relatively easy fashion before hammering down some batting practice in the middle.

With finals up for grabs in all three formats, Larkin just wants a bit more polish added to the Central Park-St Brendan’s machine moving forward.

“Obviously, chasing 130-odd can be a little bit tricky if you lose a couple of early wickets, but it was pleasing that most of the top order got a start,” he said.

“Although, I did say to the boys after the game that starts aren’t going to win us games in finals, we need someone to go on with it so (there’s) still lots of room for improvement.

“It’s obviously pleasing to see Mitch (Brett) get some runs and ‘Hayesy’ also falling just short.

“I think we’ve got to take it with a grain of salt as well; they had four of their best players not playing in Hadleigh (Sirett), Seth (Westley) and then Jedd (Wright) and ‘Riordo’ (Andrew Riordan).”

A Katandra attack missing some big names was able to strike early, but consistency through the guts helped the Tigers hack away at a below-par total.

Resuming at 1-17 on day two, nightwatchman Dwain Vidler departed for four off Corey Hickford’s bowling and hopeful Katandra cries rang into the air.

However, they soon evaporated — Central Park-St Brendan’s simply wasn’t entertaining the thought of slipping on this proverbial banana peel.

Larkin was the first architect of the chase, carving out a measured 29 before Connor Hayes continued with an innings steeped in controlled aggression and tactical acumen.

The latter was stopped two runs shy of a blink-and-you-miss-it half-century, but Mitch Brett ensured he’d raise the willow for the first time in new colours.

Brett assumed the mantle established by Hayes, his stylish 56 embodying a certain fluency that drove Central Park over the line.

Jarrod Wakeling popped up with a late cameo of 27 runs to add a dab of dominance to the win, which secures the Tigers’ foothold in the top four, a position of both privilege and pressure as they prepare for a critical clash with Waaia.

“It’s going to be a pretty big game for us; if we want to make the one-day final, we definitely need to win the next two one-day games,” Larkin said.

“They’ve been the benchmark the last few years. They’ve beaten us the last few times, so we’ll be coming at them red hot to try and get ourselves into this final.

“We feel like we’ve got a lot of room for improvement still, but if we can hopefully knock off Waaia next week and go into the break with only dropping one game, we’re in a pretty strong position.”