It was a less than ideal start for Western Zone in its first under 18s Country Colts match at Albury on Tuesday as Orange trio Harry McGregor, Blake Weymouth and Ben Schofield fell to a tough ACT side by seven wickets.
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After winning the toss, the side from the nation's capital sent the Western boys out to bat as they worked their way to a respectable 163 as Weymouth spent almost two hours at the crease, putting together a team-high knock of 53.
It wasn't an enormous total but Western quick Harry McGregor felt like it was more than adequate.
"We'd had a look at what the other scores were at this ground and we felt like 163 was pretty par," McGregor said.
"We believed we could defend that. Unfortunately, we bowled too much on both sides of the wicket which wasn't too helpful... it's a bit hard to field."
It took ACT just 36 overs to track down the total as Zak Keogh (88) belted four sixes in a devastating batting display.
Even though Keogh had a big day out, it wasn't due to McGregor's bowling as his stat sheet was one of the best on the day.
The Orange City flamethrower took two wickets in seven overs, conceding just 17 runs along the way.
"We dropped a couple of catches which didn't help," he said.
"But, as a team, we set a couple of goals at the start of the tournament to always try to be positive so even when we dropped those chances, we tried to keep our heads up.
"We had some good momentum at the start but we probably dropped off after the 30th over."
After a brief rain delay, Western kicked off its Wednesday clash against Riverina with the bat in-hand as they worked their way to a sound total of 221 as leading bat Blake Weymouth produced an undefeated 74 runs in two and-a-half hours at the crease.
Thomas Coady and Mikey McNamara also chipped in with half centuries of their own as it was a batsmen's feast at Bunton Park on Wednesday afternoon.
Riverina's bowling staff took more hits than Google as they only took three wickets in the opening innings.
Western Zone will obviously look to lean on Harry McGregor after lunch but will need strong contributions from the rest of their bowling staff.
However, with a massive total like 221, the boys from the West would be odds-on to get the job done and that's exactly what they need to do if they wish to take out the pool.
Not only will Western need to win its remaining two contests in order to claim the pool, it will need to rely on ACT losing at least one of its matches.
At the time or print, ACT commenced a 183-run chase against Illawarra.
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