It was a mixed bag of results for Dubbo’s representative indoor cricketers on Saturday during round three of the Country NSW BBI at Dubbo Sportsworld.
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Despite not playing their best cricket, the Western Stars Men’s Division 1 side recorded two victories.
Fielding first against the Charlestown Chargers, they missed a lot of chances across the 16 overs, but kept the score to just 76. Dan Horrocks was welcomed back into the team and took 2/-2, in his first representative outing for the season.
In the run chase Justin Knudsen was dynamic, scoring 25, while Henry Railz relished in his chance in the top grade and made 27 as the Stars finished with 137, and three skins, in a comprehensive win.
Western then fielded first again when playing Maitland, and again their execution was not as clinical as they would have hoped. Easy chances went begging and the disciplined Panthers team took advantage and made 100, with Jordan Peacock’s 2/-1 the best effort from the Stars bowling attack.
The run chase did not go as planned with some good bowling and fielding from the Panthers and some careless mistakes from the Stars leading to them being just 51 from 12 overs. This left the last pair of Dan French and Brock Larance needing 50 from the final four overs. They made their way to 30 from three and then needing 20 from the last six balls. Just four runs came from the first three balls so the side were left with the task of 16 to win from three balls.
Enter 14-year-old Larance who, along with the experienced French showed the right way to play when chasing, smashing anything loose while also giving the bowler respect and putting the pressure back on him by batting with authority. Larance, fresh from being named in the Australian All Stars 15 & Under Team at the recent Junior Nationals held in Dubbo, found himself facing a a current NSW Blues Open Men’s bowler.
Larance hit the fourth and then the sixth and final ball straight back over the bowler’s head, scoring seven each time, winning the game for the Stars in the most unlikely of circumstances, 104-100.
In the Masters Division, the Western Stars defeated the Chargers for the second time this season after previously being unable to beat their notorious rivals in over a decade, but they couldn’t match that effort against the Panthers.
Mark Dee, Andrew Waldren and Darren Davies played well for the Stars.
The young Stars Men’s Division 2 team continued to impress in their game against the Chargers. They scored a 114 to 70 victory against the Novocastrians.
Henry Railz (29) and Adlai Shipp (26) dominated with the bat, while Ben O’Donnell, Brock Larance, Mitch Russo, Tom Barber and Tom Nelson each picking up multiple wickets.
They were then brought back to earth with a 74-143 loss at the hands of the Panthers.
In the Men’s Division 3, the Stars showed promise but lost both their matches.
They were defeated 99-84 and 117-86 by the Chargers and Panthers respectively.
