MACQUARIE all-rounder Ben Taylor showed why he was one of the prized recruits of the off-season when he sparked a late CYMS collapse that has put his side in firm control of their two-day Whitney Cup clash at No.2 Oval.
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Taylor, who joined the Blues from Rugby, took 4-27 off nine overs as what shaped up as an even contest quickly turned in favour of Macquarie.
CYMS will start day two on 7-49 in reply to Macquarie's first innings score of 176, and they have plenty of work to do if they are to avoid defeat.
After winning the toss and batting, Macquarie skipper Keiran Brien would have been questioning the decision when opener Ed Haylock (3) fell in just the fifth over.
While the combination of a grassy wicket and slow outfield made scoring difficult, Macquarie were able to string a number of handy partnerships together without truly getting away.
Dan Medway made 26 at the top of the order, and with Jason Green making 39 and Brien himself chipping in with 34 it set a solid platform.
But the Blues lower order staggered, with 17no from Angus Cusack and 13 from Taylor helping them to a decent total of 176 from 56.3 overs.
Englishman Stuart Naden was the best of the CYMS bowlers, bagging 5-45 from his 17.3 overs.
With 18 overs to see out, CYMS started poorly and never really improved.
Daniel Duffy was the first of Taylor's wickets for a duck before his new ball partner Jeremy Dickson got the vital wicket of Naden (3) with the score on just 13.
When Taylor cleaned up Harry Brennan (10) and Ben Knaggs (0) in the same over Macquarie was on top with the score 4-13, and while Matt Ellis (8) and Ryan Medley (20) put up some resistance, the swing and seam being extracted by the bowlers was proving too much.
Ellis fell to Cusack before Taylor trapped Tom Nelson LBW, and the last wicket of the day fell when Medley copped a vicious bouncer from Mitch Williams-Hedges and gloved it to Cody Hannelly behind the stumps.
"It was a good way to finish the day and now the key is to hopefully get those last three wickets pretty quickly next week," Taylor said.
"I would have liked to bowl first but 'KB' elected to bat and under the circumstances 176 was a decent score.
"The outfield probably cost us another 20 to 40 runs but 176 was defendable.
"We went out with the feeling that if we could bag two or three wickets before stumps we'd be happy but to have them seven down was something we couldn't have expected.
"It was actually nice to bowl on a pitch that had a bit of grass on it and some life."
With a spot in the top three potentially up for grabs, Macquarie will look to lock up first innings points quickly this Saturday and then think of the best way to push for an outright win.
