WESTERN ZONE PREMIER LEAGUE ROUND 2
Our representative team travelled to Dubbo on Sunday for the second round of Western Premier League.
After originally being scheduled to be played in Wellington due to a veterans carnival being played in Dubbo through the week, the weather in the week leading up to the match forced the match to be moved back to Dubbo.
We went into the match with a couple of changes from round 1 with Rory Kalnins and Kyle Buckley the new faces.
We won the toss and elected to bat first. Our openers, Harry Grindle and Joey Coughlan made a solid start with a partnership of 47 before Harry was dismissed by new Dubbo bowler, Thanuja Mudiyansela for 19.
Unfortunately we then lost another 4 wickets in reasonably quick procession slumping to 5/70. Hugh Middleton then combined with Joey to steady the ship with a 41 run stand before Lachlan Rummans had Hugh caught for 18. Tom Blowes (16) and Freddie Wilkinson (11) then helped Coughlan to push Orange’s score to 168, with Joey carrying his bat to remain unbeaten on 86.
Mudiyansela weas the best of the Dubbo bowlers, finishing with 3/34, while Rummans and skipper Marty Jeffrey each picked up two wickets.
Lachie Wykes picked up where he left off against Lachlan, taking the early wicket of Charlie Kempston to have Dubbo 1/13. Ted Murray (40) and Marty Jeffrey then added 78 runs for the second wicket, with Murray getting several lives before Bailey Ferguson finally had him out caught. Orange were given a sniff of victory when Jeffrey was dismissed for 60 and then Harry Roscarel fell shortly after to leave Dubbo at 4/123, but Tom Nelson helped to steer his side home in the 47th over with 5 wickets in hand.
Joey Coughlan backed up his batting to take 2/35 with the ball from his 9.2 overs, with Lachie Wykes, Bailey Ferguson and Rory Daburger the other wicket takers.
We now await the result of the Lachlan v Bathurst match that was deferred to 3 November, to see who our opponent will be for the Semi Final on 15 December.