James O’Brien may have belted a century and led Rugby’s successful chase on Saturday but he believes it was Ben Taylor’s decision to bowl spin which won his side the match.
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O’Brien made 111 as Rugby chased down Newtown’s total of 228 at No. 1 Oval but earlier in the day Taylor had tore through the Tigers lineup on the way to finishing with 5/37.
The win ensures Rugby stay three points clear at the top of the RSL-Whitney Cup ladder heading into the Christmas and New Year’s break.
Taylor has been most commonly known as a left-arm quick throughout his career but in recent seasons he has opted to slow it up at times and O’Brien said it made all the difference on Saturday.
“I’d never seen him bowl spin but before he came on he said to (captain) Nath (Munro) the batsmen seemed to be liking the ball coming on to them so he was thinking of bowling spin and slowing it up and it worked a treat,” he said.
“It was the call of the day and changed the game and he bowled a lot better than I had expected.”
Taylor’s wickets came at a key time as Doug Potter (53) and Jordan Peacock (51) had helped the Tigers give themselves a chance of passing 250.
Rugby had got themselves in trouble during an unsuccessful run chase against Macquarie a week earlier and after Jacob Hill (1) departed early O’Brien came to the crease determined to not let that happen again.
He immediately set about pummeling the Newtown attack and dominated what was a match-winning partnership with youngster Ben Wheeler.
O’Brien belted nine fours and three sixes in his knock of 111 while Wheeler played a supporting role and made 53.
I’ve just been waiting for the bad ball and they probably haven’t been my best innings’ but I’ve just stayed out there.
- James O'Brien
“I wanted to go hard and not get bogged down,” O’Brien said.
“We did that a bit against Macquarie and panicked a bit so I wanted to put the foot down and put the bad ball away and keep the strikerate up so if we did lose some wickets we could still get the job done.
“We’ve been talking about learning from every game and we’ve done that.”
That willingness to learn from previous games, and also mistakes, has helped O’Brien’s individual game.
The former Western Zone all-rounder has now hit two centuries this summer.
“It’s been good and it’s all patience,” O’Brien said.
“I’ve just been waiting for the bad ball and they probably haven’t been my best innings’ but I’ve just stayed out there and not gone for that big shot if I’ve got bogged down.”
Munro (33 not out) stayed at the crease on Saturday and guided his side to the convincing six-wicket win while Greg Kerr and Dale O’Donnell claimed two wickets each for Newtown.
The win continued Rugby’s fantastic turnaround as last season’s wooden-spooners are now well-placed to play finals cricket in 2017/18.
“We had a goal at the start of the season to be in the top half at this time and obviously in the last few weeks we knew we had the chance to be top so that was a goal as well,” he said, before speaking about his side’s change of fortunes.
“We’ve had ‘Patto’ (Ben Patterson) and ‘BT’ (Taylor) come back and that’s been a boost and the young guys look up to them.
“But also with (the injured) Jordan Moran being out so much I think it’s been a blessing in disguise because the young guys have stayed in the side and really feel like they belong.
“In previous years ‘Jordo’ or I might have been out and then we’d come back and those young guys have gone back to twos but they feel a part of it now and are comfortable.”
The loss for Newtown, coupled with Colts’ win over CYMS, sees the Tigers fall from fourth to fifth on the ladder.