Razorbacks steamroll Tatts in the opening round of NDCA’s first grade 40-over comp

Wilga Hotel Razorbacks proved they are the real deal this season when they kick-started Narrabri District Cricket Association’s 2024/25 campaign one day competition with a dominant win over Tatts on Saturday.

The two sides met in a day/nighter at Hogan Oval but the lights were not required as the Razorbacks cruised to a crushing nine-wicket victory.

Having gone through the past two seasons winless and having forfeited four games in each of those seasons, the club was in danger of folding in the pre-season and it seemed likely that they would struggle even if they did get a team together.

But they pushed through the pain and are now thriving as they set their sights on returning to the finals for the first time since 2021.

Wilga’s skipper Matt Bradshaw won the toss on Saturday afternoon and opted to send Tatts into bat, and his side ripped through their opponents’ lineup as they bowled them out for 78 runs in 23.2 overs.

The Razorbacks cruised to victory in the second innings as president Greg Melton (35*) put on a 33-run opening partnership with Zack Doring (10) and a 48-run partnership with Angus Galagher (26*) that ended up being unbeaten as the chasing side won by nine wickets after just 11 overs.

Melton told The Courier that the win would give his teammates a sense of confidence going forward.

“It was a very good feeling; a feeling of accomplishment I suppose and a sigh of relief,” the club president said.

“I feel we were close in the two T20 games we’d played already this year but we just hadn’t put two innings together, so it was good to finally get it done.

“We were aggressive from the start and we kept that going through the whole game. We were fiery with the ball and that carried on when me and Angus went out there and scored at more than a run a ball.

“I think the win gives us confidence, but I think what it does most is gives the guys on the fringe confidence to take the day off and come play. With the first two losses, I think a few guys were sort of thinking ‘I’d rather be at work than going to lose cricket’, but now we have a good win under our belt and we know we can compete this year.

“Hopefully the guys that played on the weekend will be keen to find some consistency, because consistency has been our Achilles heel.

“We’ve already used 21 players in three games, so hopefully we can now put full-strength teams together each week, even though that’s always going to be hard this time of the year with farming.”

Saturday’s win was inspired by one of the Razorbacks’ newest additions Jack Tate.

In his first one day game for his new club, Tate opened the bowling and delivered a wicket with his first ball of the contest as he bowled Rod Kirk for a golden duck. He finished that over with a wicket-maiden to his name and then went to another level in his second over when he produced a double-wicket-maiden to make the score 3-2 as he bowled the Tatts’ skipper Jakeb Nipperess for a duck before knocking over Saad Kahn also for a duck with the assistance of a brilliant Guy Percy diving catch at gully.

Tate then produced a third straight maiden before his opening bowling partner Dylan Smith joined in on the action and bowled Hugh Lennon (1) in the sixth over to make the score 4-10.

Doring replaced Smith in the 10th over and it took him five deliveries to make his mark on the contest as he claimed the wicket of Josh Campbell (6), who was also caught by Percy.

Brendon Ward joined opener Ed Currall in the middle after that wicket and they combined for their side’s best partnership of the day as they put on 40 runs together, and it looked promising until Doring caught Ward (24) in the Melton-bowled 21st over.

The 6-61 scoreline became 7-61 in an instant as Melton found himself on a hat-trick after bowling Brodie Heron, but Dylan Brown survived the hat-trick ball.

Tatts reached 74 runs in the 23rd over before Brown (3) was run out by Tate and Jarrod Gould was run out by Smith, and Smith then put the innings to bed two balls into the next over as he bowled Taryn Kirk (2).

Currall ended up unbeaten after he carried his bat to end up on a team-best score of 29* as Tatts fell for 78 in 23.2 overs.

The Razorbacks used five bowlers on the day and four of them took wickets as Tate (3-14 from seven overs and a run out), Smith (2-16 from 4.2 overs and a run out), Melton (2-17 from five overs) and Doring (1-14 from five overs) combined for all 10 wickets.

The Wilga Razorbacks will take their momentum into a day/night contest against fellow round one winners RSL at Hogan Oval this Saturday.

The defending champs began their premiership defence with a 90-run win against Tourist Hotel on Saturday after batting first and making 7-193 in their 40 overs before bowling out the chasing side for 103runs in 25.4 overs.

Tatts and Tourist Hotel will attempt to rebound from their opening-round losses when they meet at Collins Park on Saturday afternoon.