The defending premiers made the most of a full squad to produce a comfortable seven wicket win against CYMS at No.3 Oval on Saturday.

CYMS batted first and posted 203 but a strong start was undone by the middle and tail order. Their last six wickets fell for just six runs and brought a promising innings to a premature end.

It gave the Colts side confidence and with plenty of firepower in their ranks, they took their time to reach the total, not wanting to jeopardise their chances of that all important victory.

“It’s good to get that win. It’s been a long time coming,” Colts veteran Jason Ryan said.

“There was a pretty good feeling, it was a fair bit of relief. Having three losses in a row is pretty uncommon for the group we’ve got.”

While they reached the target fairly easily, Ryan said Colts were concerned after the first two sessions that their opponents were on top.

CYMS looked headed for a total of between 230 and 250 runs on the back of an 83-run partnership between Ben Knaggs and Brock Larance.

They advanced the score to 3-153 before Larance was caught LBW by Wes Giddings.

They got to 5-197 with six overs remaining after Giddings claimed the other crucial wicket of Knaggs for 54. It was the turning point with the Colts bowlers getting on top.

Giddings, Greg Buckley and Darrel Williams finished off the tail. Giddings finished with figures of 4-26 off 7.5 overs, while Buckley got 3-29 off seven.

“Their openers hung around and set things up but it was really Larance and Knaggs who built a good partnership.

“They controlled those first two sessions and we thought we might have had a bigger chase,” Ryan said.

Colts started their pursuit of the target well, getting to 45 before Giddings became the first victim on 18. Williams and Buckley carried on the scoring before the later was out for 32.

Ryan added 37 before Williams and Chris Morton combined to get the last of the runs, Morton finishing with 40 not out and Williams with 61 not out.

Nick Guthrie finished with 1-27 off nine while Knaggs and Nick Karydis also picked up a wicket each.

Representative games have drained Colts of some of their leading players but that burden is almost over, and now Ryan said the focus was on carrying form into the Christmas break.

“It was good for us to have a near full strength team,” Ryan said.

“That’s as close as we have come this season and we were still missing one or two.

“The goal is always to finish first but after losing the first three games, our goal now is to get into the top three.

“If we lose more games even that becomes a challenge so we need to win a few before Christmas.”

Despite the win Colts remain in fifth place, four points behind Souths in fourth. CYMS are still winless in sixth, a further five points in arrears, and need wins to avoid losing touch.