MACQUARIE have given themselves a chance to play finals cricket, with their first innings win against CYMS on Saturday propelling them into the Whitney Cup top three with just three matches remaining until the end of the regular season.
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On a great afternoon of enthralling cricket the Blues defended their day one total of 176 by bowling the Cougars out for 123, before opening the shoulders for a period and making 6(dec)-135 and going in search of outright points.
Needing 189 from 24 overs, CYMS made a game of it by going hard early and trying to gain a reverse outright.
In their haste wickets fell and the game was wide open heading into the final 10 overs.
In the end they made 7-135, leaving them 54 shy of victory while Macquarie fell three wickets short of an outright.
But the first innings points, combined with bonus points and Newtown's loss against RSL-Colts, has put the Blues into the top three and has set up a huge clash against Newtown over the coming two Saturdays.
"It was a massive win for us, especially with all the bonus points we picked up," said veteran Macquarie batsman Jason Green, who top scored in both innings for his side.
"We dropped a couple of catches on Saturday, myself included, and that probably hurt our chances of an outright because it would have been nice to have a lead of more than 100 and send them straight back in.
"But it turned into a good afternoon of cricket. We had a crack at getting all the bonus batting points we could and then sent them in, and to their credit they had a dip at winning the match.
"Instead of it turning into a boring last session and them just blocking it out, they had a crack and scored some runs, we took some wickets and it was pretty exciting."
CYMS resumed on 7-49 on Saturday, but Callan Braithwaite (34), Todd Summers (13), Ben O'Donnell (11) and Nick Guthrie (15no) saw them past the follow-on figure, forcing Macquarie back in to bat.
Green opened with Dan Medway, with the big left-hander making 52 has the Blues looked for runs as quickly as possible.
Skipper Keiran Brien, who made 21 himself, called an end to the innings with 24 overs left in the day, giving CYMS the chance to have a look at victory.
Summers fell early in the chase, before Guthrie (30) and Naden (49) put on a quick 45-run stand that ended when the versatile Ben Taylor, bowling spin, claimed Guthrie's wicket.
The Cougars lost 6-70 as Taylor (2-37) and Brad Johnson (3-15) took the pace off the ball but in the end both sides ran out of time.
While Macquarie move into third spot on the ladder courtesy of first innings points, the loss keeps CYMS at the tail of the ladder and they will need to win all of their remaining matches if they are to be a chance of playing finals.