Against third placed Bamawm Lockington United in the penultimate round of Goulburn Murray Cricket John McMahon’s Shield competition, Salter and Smith claimed eight wickets between them to bring off the win and lift The Flames from fifth to fourth on the ladder.
It was a costly loss for BLU as it slipped from third to fifth.
But The Flames will still need to account for Nondies Cohuna in the final two-day home-and-away round starting this Saturday to book its place in the finals.
Nondies moved to third on the ladder on Saturday with a big win over Leitchville-Gunbower.
Resuming at 3/34 on Saturday and chasing Fire Brigade’s 220, BLU was dismissed for 107.
Salter, who claimed early wickets the previous week, finished with 5/29 off 14.1 overs and Smith 3/31 off 16 overs as BLU succumbed in 45.1 overs.
Jackson Barnett and Brenton Campbell took the remaining two wickets.
— Echuca South’s batsmen, resuming at 2/146, made short work of getting the 16 runs needed to take first innings honours over Cooma and went on to post an impressive 5/242 before declaring.
For Cooma, Jack Norris sent down 21 overs for figures of 1/59, while Mason Scopelliti’s 2/52 came off nine overs.
Cooma reached 5/112 in its second innings with Jake Kell( 42) and Liam Scopelliti (35) ending South’s push for maximum points.
— Echuca won the battle for top spot on the ladder chasing down Moama’s score of 196 thanks to a century from opener Kobyn James.
James finished with an unbeaten 102 off 202 balls.
After Echuca resumed at 1/15 chasing Moama’s 196. He hit eight boundaries in more than three hours at the batting crease.
Moama’s bowlers shared the wickets with Russell Stockdale the pick of them, picking up two wickets and conceding just 29 runs off 18 overs.
— Nondies Cohuna had a big win over Gunbower-Leitchville on the back of a destructive spell of bowling from spearhead Peter Moore.
Resuming at 6/40 in pursuit of NC’s 185, the visitors scrambled only 51 more runs with almost half its score posted by Tyler Jones who made a determined 44 off 78 balls.
Moore’s deadly spell of 18.2 overs with nine maidens yielded six wickets at a cost of just 28 runs.
Batting a second time, NC reached 1/90 with opener Will Wade making a half century in readiness for its confrontation with Kyabram Fire Brigade at Kyabram’s Northern Oval starting this Saturday.