Wee Waa’s Dylan Smith made his Tamworth District Cricket Association debut for Old Boys on Saturday and he did so in style.
The 17-year-old fast bowler made an instant impact for his new club, top-scoring with the bat from number 11, taking his first TDCA wicket, claiming a run out to dismiss a batsman and taking a catch to help remove another.
Old Boys lost the toss and was sent into bat by opponents City United in the round one 40-over match.
Old Boys was struggling at 9-97 when Dylan entered the middle, however he gave his team a fighting chance by scoring a team-best 31 runs in a 41-run final-wicket partnership. He hit a four and two sixes in that knock.
Dylan then bowled eight overs as his team set out to defend its 138-run total, finishing with a respectable 1-29 from eight overs.
His first scalp in the Tamworth competition was City United captain Peter Mead (15), a batsman with more than 3000 runs to his name at an average of 31.38, with a top score of 144. Mead was caught by Dylan’s teammate Hayden Baker on the boundary.
That made the score 7-99 in the 35th over after Dylan’s run out, which saw Tait Jordan depart for 23, had made the score 6-98 in the 34th.
Dylan was then involved in the ninth wicket as he held his nerve to catch Matthew Holmes (2) from the bowling of Aaron Hazlewood who is the brother of Australian international cricketer Josh Hazlewood.
Dylan’s catch made the score 9-131 with five balls remaining.
With one ball left in the innings the scores were even, then from that last ball City United got the run it needed to win the match.
Despite going down on debut, Dylan was pleased with his performance.
He made the switch to the TDCA competition after being one of the rising stars of the Narrabri District Cricket Association for the Western Razorbacks across the past two seasons.
A new challenge and the chance to play two-day cricket inspired the Wee Waa High School student to make the move and start the next chapter in his cricketing journey.
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