The Mounties belted 389 runs off its 80 overs, Nicholson contributing 174 of those.

In what was a tough day in the field for Napoleons-Sebastopol, Mt Clear has all but assured itself of a finals berth.

After being sent in, Nicholson and captain Darcy Thomson (34 runs) put on 108 runs for the first wicket which paved the way for the rest of the batsmen to “cash in”.

And cash in they did.

Sam Giblett (58 off 54) and Matt Ward (33 off 27) made strong, quickfire scores as the rest of the batting order made handy runs – all at better than a run-a-ball.

The Mounties, who needed to win to hold-off fifth-placed Darley, are now just 10 Naps-Sebas wickets away from locking in their finals spot.

“All it comes down to is us winning, we can only control what happens in our game,” Thomson said.

“We’re in prime position to do that now.”

Thomson was pleased to see so many of the side’s key batsmen get valuable time, and confidence, in the middle

Brad Adams (3-93) and Nick Pantzidis (2-109) toiled hard with the ball, taking five of the six Mt Clear wickets from nearly 50 overs between them.

Meanwhile, Darley was immediately on the front foot against Brown Hill on Saturday, pushing hard for outright victory in order to give itself the best chance of an unlikely finals appearance.

The Lions are six points behind Mt Clear – and significant percentage – meaning a six-point victory would not be enough.

Darley was sent in to bat by the Bulls, making its way to 5-192 from 41 overs before declaring. 

Roshan Anuruddha upping the pace with an unbeaten 52 from 39 deliveries while skipper Michael Alexander was important at the top of the order with 43.

The Lions wasted no time putting the heat on the Brown Hill batsmen. The openers were dismissed before the scoreboard ticked into double figures and five wickets had fell by the time the first 50 runs were notched up.

The Bulls ended the day at 6-80, needing 12 runs to avoid the follow-on.

A positive day for Darley, giving itself every chance of claiming 10 points.

However, the wind was quickly taken out of its sails with fourth-placed Mt Clear belting its way to 389 runs on day one against Napoleons-Sebastopol.

Nonetheless, Darley can only control was it can given the current situation.

“We’d certainly take that at the start of the day, we’ve got to try and finish and execute as well as we did today next week,” Alexander said.

“We had to try and score quickly and give ourselves enough overs today (to make inroads into their batting line-up).

“We weren’t going to bridge that percentage gap so we had to give it a crack, we executed well today we’ve just got to make sure we follow through next week.”

Alexander was not getting ahead of himself, focusing on knocking off the Bulls tail. But nonetheless, fast runs would be on the menu next week in order to be secure from a runs standpoint while allowing sufficient time.

“We’ll just try and judge that to be safe enough to declare, but also give ourselves enough time at bowling them out, but we’ve got to get the four wickets first before we start thinking ahead that far.”

GOLDEN Point and North Ballarat are evenly poised after the first day’s play.

Both sides have already locked in a finals spot, but depending on results, it could well play each other in the semi-final.

The Pointies, who are undefeated, made 217 – Steve O’Loughlin continuing his great form with 64 runs.

At 3-148, it looked like Golden Point might be heading for another big score, but it lost wickets regularly from there on out.

Ash McCafferty (3-47) and Will Rogers (3-35) taking three wickets each.

The Roosters then faced a tricky 11-over period to end the day – and survived it without loss.

North Ballarat 0-19 at stumps.

If it wins, it will stay in third position, therefore playing Wendouree in the semi-final. 

But if it losses and Mt Clear win, we will see these two meet once again.

EAST Ballarat will need 198 runs if it is to end its season on a winning note.

Ballarat-Redan recovered well after being 2-3 to post 197 runs on the board. Simon Allan was the pick of the batsmen with his 57 runs from 60 balls down the order, while Rob Hind and Zac Jenkins made 46 and 43 respectively.

Josh Brown took 4-35.

The Hawks faced eight overs before stumps, ending the day at 1-12.