A STELLAR all-round effort from Greg Buckley has propelled Western Zone into a position to potentially reach the final of the NSW Country Championships.
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After losing to Southern/ACT on Day 1 of the southern pool, all hope appeared to be gone.
But a Jordan Moran-inspired victory over Riverina on Saturday revived hopes of winning the pool, with a bonus point win against Illawarra on Sunday sending the westies level with their day one conquerors on nine points.
A countback was happening on Sunday night to see if the Nick Berry-led squad would qualify for this Sunday’s final.
After belting a majestic 125 against Riverina on Saturday, Moran was again among the runs on Sunday.
His knock of 55 came as early wickets fell around him, and gave Buckley support as the number six headed towards a century of his own.
The Dubbo pair gave the Western zone some impetus, before former Macquarie player Jacob Harvey, now based at Parkes, finished things off with a quickfire 48 to help Western reach 9/289.
In reply, the hosts could only muster 180, with Marty Jeffrey’s spell of 2/21 not only claiming vital wickets but also turning the momentum in Western’s favour.
We expect that from Jordan. He's a country player and a batsman, it's his job to score runs.
- Matt Crawley
Will Lindsay bowled well without much luck to take 1/9 off eight overs while Buckley also snared a couple of wickets to cap off a big day.
“I’m particularly proud of the boys to fight back the way they did after losing on day one,” Western Zone coach Matt Crawley said.
“Most of the time if you lose on day one of a carnival it becomes very hard to win but we knew there was a lot of cricket to be played.
“We have a very positive skipper in Nick Berry, who who has played a lot of cricket in a lot of different places, and he told the boys to just go one game at a time. We beat Riverina on Saturday and that opened things back up for us as far as winning the pool.”
The depth of the Western squad was spoken about prior to the carnival, and it came to the fore at various stages over the weekend.
Moran’s runs were a highlight, but Crawley said everyone chipped in in some way, shape or form.
“We expect that from Jordan. He's a country player and a batsman, it's his job to score runs,” Crawley said.
“But we’re not a one-man band. Greg chipped in on Sunday and did his job, the bowlers also got among the wickets as well.
“Even Jacob Harvey batting down the order got vital runs for us on Sunday. Nick Berry got vital runs for us on Saturday.
“That’s the benefit of being able to take 12 players and play with 12 players. You can have an extra spinner or an extra seamer. We went with a young guy like Marty Jeffrey and he bowled the best I’ve ever seen him bowl on Sunday and changed the game.
“On Saturday it was Jacob McNaught taking four wickets. We know we can go to guys in various situations and they are going to perform for us.”
