Our Western Zone Cup started their season with a win over Dubbo on Sunday.
Dubbo won the toss and elected to bat first at Riawena Oval, but our opening bowlers had the visitors in trouble early with Hayden Griffith picking up 2 wickets and Lachy Wykes the other to have Dubbo at 3/16. When Griffith took his third and then first change Matt Burgess chimed in with 2 more, Dubbo was looking in real trouble at 6/77. Dubbo captain Pat Nelson (53) dug in firstly with Fletcher Hyde (46) and then the lower order to help push his team’s total to 181.
Wickets were shared among our bowlers, with Hayden Griffith taking 3/33 off 8 overs, Rory Daburger 2/20 off 8.3, Matt Burgess 2/30 off 5 and Lawson Hamling 2/35 from his 8 overs. Josh Dawson was economical conceding only 17 runs from his 7 overs and Lachy Wykes picked up the remaining wicket.
Harry Grindle and Toby Middleton made a solid start to the chase, adding 36 before Toby was dismissed. A number of smaller partnerships helped push our total to 98, but when we lost our 4th wicket, Dubbo would have still felt they had a chance. Josh Dawson then came to the crease and proceeded to swing the momentum clearly in our favour as he smacked 31 from 16 balls including 3 maximums to leave us within sight of victory. Harry Grindle carried his bat to finish unbeaten on 71 as we won the match with 4 wickets in hand and more than 7 overs remaining.
Our next match is away to Lachlan in 2 weeks’ time.