AN incredible eight-wicket haul from leg spinner Ryan Medley led Dubbo to a comprehensive 144-run win over Cowra in the opening round of the Western Premier League (WPL) on Sunday.
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Chasing Dubbo's impressive total of 317, set up by Paul Hulthen's 96, Cowra began well and had reached 0-91 but the introduction of spin proved decisive and Medley ripped through the Cowra line-up to finish with 8-33 from his 10 overs.
Amazingly it wasn't Medley's best-ever performance with the ball and while the leggy admitted it was pleasing to perform in the big games he was keen to praise the efforts of his batsmen, particularly Hulthen.
"Not my best ever figures but it was certainly up there and one of my better days, it's always good to play representative cricket and perform and feel part of the team," he said.
"Our batting was really good, the difference is players going and getting 80s and 90s at the top and making the total so much stronger, with 15 overs to go we were in a position to make 300 rather than 260 so that was good from Paul, he's been batting well."
After winning the toss and electing to bat at No. 2 Oval Dubbo got off to a strong start with Asher Robins and Hulthen taking the score past 50 before Robins fell for 17.
Hulthen and Jordan Moran then notched up a 50-run partnership before the Rugby skipper was stumped for 40 and then Mitch Bower departed without scoring when the score was 121.
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Hard-hitting Chris Morton joined Hulthen and together they built a century partnership that ended with Morton bowled for a well-made 55.
Hulthen fell just short of his century when he went for one big shot too many and was bowled and some late contributions from Mat Skinner (27) and Stuart Naden (24) saw the score pass 300.
Cowra's opening pair of Conor Crook and Peter Guthrie began the run chase positively but with the partnership approaching three figures Dubbo captain Tim Cox threw the ball to the spinners and Bower removed Guthrie for 56.
Cowra star Mick Curtale came to the crease and signalled his intention early with a six off his first ball from Medley but when he tried to do it again next ball he was caught on the boundary brilliantly by a leaping Chris Morton and Medley admitted that was a huge moment in the match.
"If Mick clears the boundary there instead of getting caught that turns into an over where you go for 15 runs and probably pulled from the attack," he said.
"He's one of the players who can take the game away from you extremely quickly."
Medley had Crook caught shortly after and from there the leg spinner worked his way through the middle order, producing impressive turn and having four of his wickets caught by the keeper and slips.
Fittingly it was Medley who took the final wicket and after the win he was quick to turn his focus to this weekend's clash with fierce rivals Parkes.
"We've got Parkes and we know they're always a good game and hopefully we can get a good win and really put our name out there and make sure we're the team to beat in Western Zone," he said.
Cowra captain Curtale was disappointed after seeing his side push last season's WPL winners at stages of the match but with the chance to come to Dubbo again in two weeks, he was confident his side can improve.
"Once you're chasing 320 you're up against it, our opening partnership was very good and set us up nicely but seven and eight an over from the get-go is pretty hard, Dubbo had batted well and we were probably a bit below par with our bowling but it was our first game together and we'll get better as the season goes on," he said.