RSL bounces back with a 38-run T20 win against Tatts

Narrabri RSL Cricket Club’s second XI returned to the winners’ circle for the first time in all forms of the game this season when they scored a dominant 38-run victory against Tatts in round two of the Narrabri District Cricket Association’s 2021-22 second grade T20 competition at Hogan Oval on Friday night.

The side bounced back from a 15-run round one loss against Tourist Hotel a week earlier by producing a clinical display with the bat and in the field.

RSL batted first after the team’s stand-in skipper Nick Baird won the toss, and it totalled 4-123 in 20 overs. The side then knocked over Tatts for just 85 runs in 19.1 overs.

What RSL lacked in its round one loss was a key early partnership and applying pressure on the fielding side with running between wickets.

The team’s two openers Bernard O’Connor and Alistair Wheeler, who both missed the round one match, delivered both of those in spades with an outstanding opening-wicket partnership.

The duo scored at more than seven-and-a-half runs an over during the first 10 overs as RSL reached 0-76 at the midway point of its innings.

Tatts finally made a breakthrough in the 11th over when Craig Gleeson knocked over O’Connor (19) before Wheeler fell for a game-best 49 in the 12th over. That made the score 2-82, however, a brilliant foundation had been laid for a successful innings.

RSL only lost two more wickets in the last eight overs while adding 41 more runs.

Will Ford (13) chipped in with a start while Beau Tomlinson (11*) and Daniel Hughes (10*) remained unbeaten at the crease after the final delivery had been bowled.

Gleeson was his side’s best with the ball with 2-14 from four overs and played a key role in reducing RSL’s run rate from just over seven-and-a-half in the first 10 overs to a tick over four-and-a-half in the second half of the innings.

Just as RSL did in the first innings, it started the second on the front foot in the second as opening bowlers Harry Pattison and Ford took a wicket each to leave Tatts struggling at 2-7 after two overs.

Ford then produced his second wicket-maiden of the match in the fourth over to make the score 3-12.

Those wickets left Gleeson and Mark Crutcher at the crease for Tatts, who produced the chasing side’s largest partnership of the game.

They combined for 32 runs before Gleeson (21) was bowled by Justin Saunders in the 12th over.

That made the score 4-44 and Tatts could not recover.

Crutcher scored a team-best 25 but lost eight partners during his time at the crease before he was run out in the final over of the game which brought the innings to a close.

Tatts was only able to reach 85 runs as it fell 39 short of victory.

Ford was the pick of the RSL bowlers with 2-3 from three overs, while teammates Bernard O’Connor (2-9 from two overs) and Saunders (2-15 from four overs) also took two scalps each. Luke Baker (1-12 from two overs) and Pattison (1-17 off three overs) both claimed a wicket each on debut, while Matt Tubner (1-18 off four overs) took one as well.

That result left both RSL and Tatts on eight points each after two rounds.

Both have won a game each and lost a game each and can qualify for the January 28 grand final with a win in the third and final round of the regular season this Friday.

RSL returns to Hogan Oval where it will take on Tourist Sports Bar, while Tatts faces the undefeated Tourist Hotel at Collins Park.