The Wilga Hotel Razorbacks made a powerful statement on Saturday as they dominated the defending champs RSL in a grand final rematch at Collins Park to cement their status as the team to beat in this season’s Narrabri District Cricket Association first grade one day competition.
One of the most dominant and destructive first-wicket partnerships on a Narrabri cricket field in recent history helped guide last season’s runners-up to an impressive total of 9-184 in 38 overs, with two overs cut from each innings due to an achilles injury to RSL’s Zack Trindall.
RSL were forced to line up with 10 batsmen for their chase in the second innings after Trindall had been taken to hospital, and they crumbled to end up all out for 44 runs with one delivery to spare in the 14th over.
Razorbacks openers Matt Bradshaw and Greg Melton starred in their side’s 140-run victory as they produced a 171-run partnership that lasted more than 31 overs.
Melton smashed a six and four fours on his way to 83 runs from 104 deliveries, while Bradshaw backed up an impressive T20 performance the previous night to register 72 runs from 92 balls, 20 of which came from five boundaries.
The partnership was Bradshaw’s second in triple figures in as many matches after he and skipper Jack Tate put on 111 runs together in a washed-out T20 draw against Boggabri Colts on Friday night (see page 20).
Melton told The Courier that his side’s main goal during round one was to bat out the entire innings, which they achieved despite an epic collapse in the last seven overs.
“The plan was to bat the 40 overs. Being the first game of the season, we would have been happy to do that, regardless of the score,” the club’s president and 2024/25 season players’ player said.
“We wanted to give ourselves the best chance to win it.
“Everything just fell into place.
“I personally didn’t try to go over the top in terms of being aggressive. I just tried to work the ball around, and then next thing we were 0-80 at drinks and around 150-odd at the 30-over mark.
“Getting to 184 was definitely a good total for us. When we chatted before the game about batting out the 40 overs, we said 140 or 150; we’d be happy with that.
“We got to the 30th over and Matt and I had a chat and said let’s put the foot down. Matt lasted another over and got out, then I got out the over after that.
“We bowled really well, and the fielding was good, but Tatey (captain Jack Tate, who took 6-25 from seven overs) could have had one or two more if we had taken all our catches. He had a couple of dropped catches, one at first slip and one at gully.
“He bowled really well; full and straight. The dismissals (five of which were bowled) tell you how he bowled. He bowled well at the stumps.
“To restrict them to 44 was brilliant. We were really happy with that.”
The Razorbacks enjoyed a successful 2024/25 campaign, during which they were undefeated minor premiers in the one day competition, but they ended up losing the grand final in both formats against RSL.
Melton is confident they can get back to the big dance for another crack this season.
“We’re pretty confident that we can get back to the grand final, but we’re looking at having the biggest harvest that we’ve had in the past five years as well as the biggest summer crop in that time as well,” Melton said.
“It’ll just be about consistency for us.
“You still have to respect every opposition too. If you start to lose that respect, you can start to underperform.
“You need to turn up every week expecting the other team’s best team to be coming at you.”
While Bradshaw and Melton ensured that the damage was well and truly done by the 30-over mark, it could have been far worse for RSL had it not been for their experienced opening bowlers Jarrett Tough and Nathan Trindall.
The duo both came back for their second spells at the back-end of the innings and combined for the nine wickets as the Razorbacks went from 0-171 to 9-184. That included an epic collapse of 8-6 as Wilga Hotel found themselves at 8-177 following Trindall’s phenomenal four-wicket maiden in the 35th over when he took the big wicket of Melton and bowled Davo McCathie, Jay Hall and Toby Reynolds for ducks.
Tough secured his fifth wicket with two balls to spare when he bowled Mark Rottger for the Razorbacks’ fifth duck of the day, which saw Maecee Smith arrive at the crease to partner her brother Dylan.
The brother and sister duo remained unbeaten at the end of the 38th over as Wilga Hotel ended the innings on 9-184.
Tough (5-24 from seven overs) and Trindall (4-16 from six overs) were their side’s standouts with the ball, but they ended up being outdone by Tate in the second innings.
After being dismissed by Tough for a second-ball duck during the first innings, Tate returned serve just five balls into the second innings when he dismissed the RSL captain for two runs, and he then went on to take six of his side’s nine wickets to finish with 6-25 from seven overs.
Jay Hall (2-4 from 1.5 overs) and Dylan Smith (1-15 from five overs) were the only other two Wilga Hotel bowlers used on the day as their side knocked over RSL for 44 runs in 13.5 overs.
Jordan Doolan (12) was the only RSL batsman to score a boundary and also to reach double figures.
The defending champions will be looking to bounce back in round two this Saturday when they challenge fellow round one losers Tourist Hotel at Hogan Oval.
The Razorbacks have the bye in round two, and the other first grade fixture sees Boggabri Colts play their maiden one day game when they meet round one winners Tatts at Collins Park.
Melton will be making the most of the bye on Saturday by hosting a cricket session for junior and female cricketers from both Wee Waa and surrounding towns at Wee Waa’s Dangar Park. It will get underway at 11am.
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