NDJCA scores wins against Inverell

Narrabri District Junior Cricket Association’s two representative teams scored their first wins of the season away from home in their respective competitions on Sunday.

Both the Ross Panton Cup (under-12s) and Tim Grosser Cup (under-14s) sides had tough starts to the season with away losses to Tamworth Gold and Tamworth Blue respectively.

However, the Narrabri teams’ fortunes changed in round three when they travelled to Inverell.

The under-14s side demolished the hosts by 51 runs after batting first and making 193 in 33.2 overs before bowling Inverell out for 142 in the 33rd over.

In the under-12s Narrabri batted first and scored 4-113 in its 20 overs before knocking over Inverell for 87 to secure a 26-run victory.

Below is a report of both matches provided by the NDJCA:

Under-12s:

Captain Kyne Allen lost the toss and Narrabri was sent into bat.

Kyne and Gabriel O’Connor opened the batting and were off to a good start.

Gabriel received a good solid delivery and was trapped in front of the stumps.

This brought Lachie Mason to the crease.

Kyne and Lachie put on a brilliant 20-run partnership before Lachie was bowled for four with some great shots and good running between the wickets.

With Narrabri being 2-26, George Barton approached the pitch in at number four.

Kyne and George picked up the pace, and with some great shot-making and patience, achieved a great 54-run partnership (before George was caught for 21 runs).

With the score 3-80 and Narrabri looking in control, Ashley Finlay took his place with quick and effective running, and a couple of hard hitting boundaries.

Ashley was caught for 11 and Narrabri was 4-98 off 18 overs.

Blake Fielder was next in and he cracked a few quick boundaries to end the side’s 20 overs at 4-113, with captain Kyne being not out with a great knock of 30 and holding his team together.

As the Narrabri 12s strode out to field, they were confident in their strong bowling attack.

Opening bowlers Will Clarke and Lachie Mason bowled very tight with great back up from the field and a lot of energy from the entire team.

The cracks soon began to show for Inverell.

With Gabriel and Kyne joining the attack, both picked up a vital wicket each with two good catches for wicketkeeper George Barton.

Inverell then stood at 2-59 with some great tight overs from Blake Fielder and Brock Allen.

Narrabri’s Asan Asad entered the attack with some accurate spin bowling and turned the game in Narrabri’s favour with two wickets in his first over and one in his next to finish with 3-3 off two overs in conjunction with Jackson Dowdell.

The two boys combined well and Jackson picked up a wicket with a great delivery to keep the pressure on and Narrabri in control.

And with Ali Ashad in the attack and Will Clarke coming back in again, they quickly cleaned up the tail with Ali finishing with a great 2-5 and Will Clarke 2-6.

Narrabri won after bowling Inverell out for 87.

The whole team played extremely well and represented Narrabri District Junior Cricket with great pride.

Captain Kyne picked up the man of the match award and Asan Asad took home the game ball.

Under-14s:

The NDJCA under-14s intertown team travelled through a smoke and dust filled sky across the mountain to land on a well watered and well cared for pitch in Inverell.

The coin was flipped and Narrabri padded up to open the batting.

The captains sent Bernard O’Connor and Sanchit Jagadeeson in to test Inverell’s bowling speed and accuracy.

Bernard knocked four boundaries, and ran quickly between the wickets calling his partners to run at every opportunity.

Sanchit went for two while Bernard was caught and bowled on a respectable 25.

Sidney Harvey was first drop and sat comfortably at the crease producing seven boundaries very quickly.

He too was not afraid to put in for the singles, but was denied his fifty after being bowled out on 47.

Clay Hoffman’s stay was brief as he misjudged a quick ball and was given LBW for a duck.

Alistair Wheeler made his way out as the day began to heat up and the wind made it hard to predict the ball.

With a double tap of the bat Alistair called on many a bowler tallying a whopping 58.

This score included four boundaries, a massive six and plenty of quick runs between the stumps.

Jonty Fowler had a tough act to follow but he made the game his own and he too found the boundary and lifted the ball to score his own 6 finishing his run on 17.

Lucas Hogan copped a sharp turning ball and was bowled for a duck, while Lachlan Ford contributed a valuable five runs.

Then there was Noah Mace (3), Jackie Collett (0) and Tallen Robinson, the last man standing on 3*.

Narrabri finished all out for 193.

Finally, after a long lunch break, the bowlers had been itching to try out the pitch and they were to get their revenge.

Sidney marked his run up then gathered speed before hurtling five overs at the Inverell boys. The result was 1-23.

Sanchit was the other opening bowler for Narrabri and he too showed impressive speed and accuracy bowling a total of five overs for 1-24.

Lucas was brought in from the other end.

He chipped away, persisting with his textbook bowling action which paid off as he contributed 3-26 off nine overs.

Jonty was given the cherry and he too exposed the batsmen over his five overs with 2-/17 as did Alistair who achieved 2-9 off his 30 balls.

Clay struck the pads sending his batter back to camp before finishing with 1-18, and Lachie Ford showed his talent particularly at the tail end with a very tight two overs to finish with 0-10.

Inverell pulled out everything they had from their cricket bag of tricks but Narrabri bowled them all out for 142.

It should be mentioned that every player chased, flung, slid and threw everything they had into their fielding at every opportunity.

This tenacity ultimately won the NDJCA side the game.

Captain Alistair received man-of-the-match for his batting and bowling figures.