Rugby is the early pacesetter in Whitney Cup cricket after taking 20 wickets against CYMS on Saturday to win by an innings and 70 runs.
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They sit at the top of the ladder after the outright victory and with the return of class bowlers Adrian Carey and Ben Patterson have showed the other teams they will pose a threat.
Rugby laid the platform for their victory on the opening day of the match a week earlier, when they reached 8-319 from their 75 overs. James O’Brien led the way with an unbeaten 123.
It put them in a strong position but their bowlers came out and ensured they not only claimed the win, dismissing CYMS for 143 and cleaning them out in their second innings for just 106.
Rugby captain Jordan Moran said he was pleased to see players like Ben Wheeler and Campbell Rose, who scored 32 and 69 respectively, stepping up with the bat.
“We’ve always been able to take wickets but last year scoring runs was a problem for us so it’s nice to see the guys starting the season well.
“To see young guys like Ben and ‘Rosey’ doing well is a big positive for us. And James O’Brien has always been capable of making runs so he has started well.”
Moran said he hoped it would spark a more consistent season for the batsmen.
CYMS started their run chase on Saturday strong, with David McAlister and Brock Larance putting together a partnership of 37 before McAlister was bowled by Patterson.
Larance went on to make 62 before he was caught off Carey. That was where things started to go wrong for CYMS.
They struggled to form any real partnerships and were 5-110 before being bowled out completely for 143.
The follow-on started badly with Larance and McAlister both getting ducks but Ben Knaggs gave them a chance of avoiding the outright loss with his gritty knock of 71.
Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to save them. He was caught off Carey’s bowling with the score 8-105 and the match was all over soon after for the addition of just one run.
Carey finished with 3-42 of 10.3 in the first innings and an impressive 5-30 off eight in the second. Patterson took 4-29 off 11 in the first innings and grabbed another wicket later, while O’Brien took three for the match.
Moran said his team are aiming to make the semi-finals after a disappointing 2016-17 season saw them finish last. He said this was a good start.
“To sit on 16 points after the first round is massive for us. The boys were celebrating happily and will take plenty of confidence from it,” the skipper said.