The Pink Slugs scored 166 runs to win Sunday’s MA Connolly Cup season opener at Leitch Oval, and stand-in skipper Greg Melton was confident they could have won chasing a whole lot more after the Narrabri District Cricket Association representative side defeated Tamworth by seven wickets on home soil.
The hosts bowled first in the round one match and limited a youthful Tamworth District Cricket Association team to 165 runs before taking their final wicket from the final delivery of the 40-over innings. The Pink Slugs then chased down the required total in 27.3 overs, having only lost three wickets.
Melton and his Wilga Hotel Razorbacks club teammate Matt Bradshaw opened the batting together in that second innings and registered 42 runs before Bradshaw was caught for 17 in the seventh over.
Narrabri’s first innings hero Jake Brayshaw, who had taken 5-30 from eight overs with the ball, arrived at the crease next, and he and his skipper produced a 72-run partnership in 12 overs to take the hosts into triple digits.
Brayshaw departed in the 19th over when he was bowled for 25, but Melton was determined to go on with it as he blasted a six just two balls later to bring up his half-century.
Melton was eventually caught for 51 runs off his 53rd delivery during the following over, but Hamish Duncan (17*) and Tom Craig (31*) went on with the job and built an unbeaten 48-run partnership to guide their side to a sensational seven-wicket victory.
Craig blasted two sixes in three deliveries in the 28th over to bring the match to a close, with his 31 runs coming from just 20 balls in his first game for the Pink Slugs since 2019.
Melton told The Courier he enjoyed captaining the side in the absence of Jack Tate, who was away at a wedding over the weekend, and that he was impressed with the way the Pink Slugs batted in the second innings.
“With the ball, I think we let ourselves down a little bit. We didn’t bowl very good at all,” Melton said.
“I’d say we were a 5/10 for our bowling, but our batting was 10/10.
“Tamworth got off to a flyer and we weren’t bowling well, so I tried to do a few shorter spells.
“Once we dried the runs up a bit, I brought Jake on. He got five wickets and a runout, and he was our only shining star with the ball.
“He bowled eight overs straight, and there was maybe only one or two bad balls in that spell. He bowled really well.
“You always have a script with batting. Me and Bradshaw had a 40-run partnership, and then Jake came in and really consolidated the innings and soaked up some pressure. Him and I both lost our wickets close to each other, but Mish (Duncan) and Craigie (Craig) came in and both did their job perfectly.
“All of us did our roles perfectly to the script.
“It was hot and exhausting out there batting. It felt pretty stress-free though.
“I was always confident in our batting, before and during the innings. I thought 166 was well within our capabilities, and I think we could have chased down 250 or more the way we were going out there.
“Tamworth were a fairly young team, and our experience showed, I think. Guys like Craigie and I were nearly double some of those guys’ ages.
“They got off to a good start though, and they were 1-60 off about 12 or 13 overs. They made us work for the win.”
Narrabri’s in-form opening fast bowler Nathan Trindall struck first at Leitch Oval on Sunday as he bowled Tamworth’s Lachlan Mason (10) with the last delivery of the seventh over to make the score 1-28.
Tamworth’s other opener Riley Jones then put on a 40-run partnership with Archie McMaster before he was caught by Dillon Hutton for 27 in the Dylan Segundo-bowled 17th over, and then Brayshaw struck with his first wicket in the 18th when he knocked over Samuel Davis caught and bowled for a golden duck.
Brayshaw took four more wickets and chipped in for another with a runout as the Pink Slugs put Tamworth on the ropes at 8-106 after 28 overs.
However, Josh Davis rallied from number eight for the visitors as he scored a team-best unbeaten 36 runs to carry his side to 165.
Andrew Harvey eventually took the final two wickets for Narrabri on his Pink Slugs debut to finish with 2-27 from five overs. The second of those wickets came from the last delivery of the innings when Alexander Ingall was caught by Jakeb Nipperess.
The Pink Slugs’ experience showed during the second innings, as Melton (51), Bradshaw (17), Brayshaw (25), Duncan (17*) and Craig (31*) got the job done to help secure a seven-wicket win.
Next up for Narrabri is a round two away trip against Gwydir on Sunday, November 16. Gwydir sat out with the bye during the opening round.
To order photos from this page click here
