Tatts down Tourist Hotel in a thriller at Cooma Oval

Narrabri District Cricket Association’s three second grade one day teams have all won once each across the opening three weeks of the 2023/24 campaign after Tatts downed Tourist Hotel in a thriller at Cooma Oval on Saturday.

Tatts skipper Jesse Packer won the toss and elected to bat in the round three match before his side went on to score 128 in 29.5 overs.

Tourist Hotel then fell five runs short of the required total as they were bowled out for 124 in the 34th over of the second innings, with Packer the hero as he took the winning wicket.

The game went right down to the wire, with Tourist Hotel on 8-110 after 27 overs, meaning they required 19 runs to win with two wickets in hand.

Tatts quick Darcy Gleeson took the ball for his eighth and final over in the 28th of the innings and produced a wicket-maiden as he dismissed Alan Whitmore (2) caught and bowled to make the score 9-110.

Scott Smith was then joined by Jai Baker for Tourist Hotel’s final-wicket stand, and Baker hit two boundaries and a single as he and Smith took the chasing side to 124 runs, three balls into the Packer-bowled 33rd over.

The Tatts skipper then claimed the winning wicket as Ahmer Parvez held onto a tough catch under a high ball at mid-off, which saw Smith dismissed for a team-best 36 runs and Tourist Hotel fall five runs short of victory.

The three sides in the competition have all accumulated 15 points each across the first three rounds following a win, a loss and a bye. Tourist Hotel beat RSL in round one, RSL downed Tatts in round two, and then Tatts bounced back with Saturday’s third-round win.

Tatts will pick up another seven points this Saturday when they sit out with the round four bye while RSL and Tourist Hotel go head-to-head at Gately Field.

Earlier in the round three match at Cooma Oval on Saturday, the NDCA’s 2022/23 season batting average award winner Chris Hartnett did most of the damage with the bat for Tatts as he opened and scored a game-best 46 runs.

The score had become 5-74 when he was caught by Jai Baker in the Jarmarl Zarka-bowled 16th over, but Michael Hewett (21), Packer (11) and Gleeson (15) all made valuable middle-order contributions to take their side past 100 runs to a defendable total.

Smith was Tourist Hotel’s best with the ball as he took a game-best 4-10 from 4.5 overs.

Tourist’s skipper Kaleb Mowle (2-17 from eight overs) also produced an impressive spell with the ball, as did Zarka (2-7 from three overs).

The side’s other two wickets were taken by Andrew Wallace (1-21 from five overs) and Baker (1-30 from three overs).

Tourist Hotel’s run chase got off to a rocky start as the top four batsmen combined for just 23 runs off the bat.

Hartnett knocked over both openers as he trapped Matt Wall (8) in front before Aaronn Baker (14) was caught by Rod Kirk at first slip.

Hewett then provided two brilliant assists for the other two wickets as the Tatts wicketkeeper took a classic one-handed dividing catch to remove Lucas Hogan (1) off the bowling of Darcy Gleeson before stumping John Lawlor (0) off the bowling of Kirk.

Smith (36), Mowle (28) and Wallace (10) made double-digit contributions from the middle order, but Tatts got the job done in nail-biting fashion to score a four-run victory.

All five of Tatts’ bowlers took at least one wicket each during the successful defence.

Hartnett (3-17 from eight overs) was the pick of the bunch, while Gleeson (2-16 from eight overs), Packer (2-23 from 6.4 overs) and Kirk (2-30 from seven overs) took two each and Rhett Myers (1-9 from three overs) took one.