NEWTOWN have kept hold of their position in the McDonald's Megahit finals spots after a tight, 10-run win over the Cricketer's Arms Journeymen last Friday night.
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The Tigers came into the match with one win and one loss under their belt but a half century from captain Mat Skinner set up victory number two.
Returning to No. 1 Oval for the first time since November, Newtown posted 5-131 from their 20 overs and despite the Journeymen being well placed at 2-61 after ten overs they could only manage 9-121 in reply.
"It was a really good game for us," Newtown captain Mat Skinner said.
"Especially coming off our last match where we got a hiding from Rugby, our bowling was a bit short and we were found out that day but we fielded really well on Friday night."
After winning the toss and batting Newtown could have hardly started better with Skinner brothers Mat and Steve racing to 0-75 after 10 overs.
Steve played the support role and made 19 while Mat belted the Journeymen attack, hitting five sixes and three fours in his knock of 58.
While the total of 5-131 proved to be enough, Skinner admitted his side should have scored more.
"From where we were we did let them back into the match," he said.
"We were looking at a score of 180-200 but it was just a matter of some of our batsmen taking a bit too much time to get in and to Colts' (Journeymen's) credit they bowled well and bowled tight in those middle overs."
Spinners Nathan Jones (2-19 off four) and Wes Giddings (0-15 off three) helped restrict the Tigers lineup with Nick Cushan's 27 the only other meaningful score.
The Journeymen's run chase began poorly when they lost Paul Hulthen early but Greg Buckley (23) and Chris Morton (35) got the innings back on track.
Midway through the innings they were well in the match with 71 runs needed from 60 balls but Garry Finlay (3-26 off four) and Steve Skinner (2-21 off four) kept things tight and took wickets at key times.
The Journeyman achieved an incredible win earlier this season when they scored 17 off the last over to defeat CYMS but 12 off the final two balls on Friday night was too big an ask and the Tigers got home by 10 runs.
"130 was a bit lower than what I wanted but it was a bit unknown with that deck," Skinner said of the new No. 1 Oval pitch.
"The back of the length (ball) was hard to hit so it was a bit of an advantage for us batting first so we could see that, they bowled a bit too full to us and didn't take full advantage."
