Cobar into Brewery Shield grand final
Wednesday February 4, 2009
Coming back from injury, Tom Good was seeing the ball well to score 44 runs for the Cobar Cowboys in their semi final win over Bourke in the Brewery Shield cricket
competition played at Ward Oval on Sunday.
The Cobar Cowboys senior representative cricket team has progressed to the grand final of the Macquarie Valley Brewery Shield competition after they recorded a win over their Bourke opposition thanks to sustained pressure from Cobar’s middle and late order batsmen on Sunday at Ward Oval.
Cobar’s captain Phil Harley won the toss and decided to bat on what was a very lively pitch at Ward Oval No 1.
Cobar’s regular opening batsman, Craig Dillon, was forced to withdraw from the game due to a back injury, however he was replaced by the experienced Tom Good who was also returning from injury.
Jake Harbison and Good battled through a fiery opening bowling spell from Bourke’s Ben Strachan and, with the score at just 18, Harbison was dismissed for 12.
Doug North joined Good at the crease and they settled in taking the score along to 53 before North was out for eight just prior to the first drinks break.
Stewart Fraser came to the crease, but his stay was short lived and he was out for 15.
Then with the dismissals of Good for 44, Peter Neale for seven and Steve Nicholson for one, Cobar had lost six wickets for only 117 runs by the second drinks break.
The Bourke players now must have been feeling quite confident of a victory.
With only 16 overs remaining, Cobar at
that stage of the match, would have been
happy to reach 170 however Captain Harley had other ideas, sending in Paul Gauci with the instructions of playing his natural big hitting game.
After taking a few balls to get his eye in, Gauci proceeded to score 16 runs from the 38th over to give the Cobar innings a much-needed momentum boost.
Gauci was out for 24 and was followed by Matthew Nicholson for 15, and when Harley was the eighth man out for a well compiled innings of 73, the score had moved along to 216 in the 48th over.
Cobar finished their 50 overs with the respectable total of nine wickets down for 222, after almost doubling their score in the last 16 overs.
Pressure from Cobar’s middle and late order batsmen and the hot weather conditions took its toll on Bourke’s bowlers and fieldsmen who dropped several chances.
The Bourke innings started disastrously with both openers out for one, which included a spectacular run out by Jake Harbison who had only one stump to aim at from side on and about 30 metres away.
These two dismissals brought Bourke’s two main batsmen to the crease, the hard hitting Strachan and former NSW Country representative Ben Nott.
Together they took the score along to 34 before Jake Harbison was again in the action, taking a well judged catch at point to dismiss Strachan for 13.
Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals and Bourke was all out for 62 with Nott making 27.
Cobar’s bowling was hightlighted by the spell from young Wade Potter who took three wickets for 12 runs from six overs.
He was extremely unlucky not to achieve a hat trick after taking two good wickets in succession at the end of his fifth over and then having Good drop a fairly simple catch at second slip with the first ball of his sixth over.
Fraser also bowled well taking four wickets for 23 from nine overs.
Other wicket takers were North 1/8 and Damien Harbison 1/3.
Cobar now play Narromine in the grand final next Sunday at a neutral venue still to be decided.
This is one match the Cobar team will be hyped up to win having lost six of the last eight grand finals and not having won the Brewery Shield competition in the past.—contributed
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