Blues wicketkeeper Maciu Gauna fell agonisingly short of his second century for Wests Illawarra 3rd Grade on the weekend with a strong performance against Helensburg.

Playing the first day of a two day match Gauna came to the wicket with the score at 3 for 137 after some good top order batting from his teammates.  He then proceeded to score 98 runs to form the backbone of Wests score of 303.

By the time he'd departed he had taken the team's score to 8 for 289 and taken his season average to 66, more than double the next best performance by his teammates.

Gauna was showing the benefit of his recent time spent at Australia's Cricket Centre of Excellence with the East Asia Pacific squad with another strong batting performance.

Such performances would ususally see a batsman promoted to 2nd Grade or higher, but with Gauna in Australia to brush up his keeeping skills as well as batting he may have to bide his time in 3rd Grade, however he will benefit from the playing stint at Wests as he looks ahead to the Blues' commitments in Nepal in February.