KINROSS has fallen agonisingly short of a place in the Orange District Cricket Association first grade top four.
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Needing two final second-innings Waratahs wickets to fall to notch an impressive final round outright victory yesterday, play was stopped at around 5pm with Waratahs duo Matt Brakenridge (14 not out) and Jason Bailey (2no) remaining unbeaten.
Still able to claim first innings points after earlier defending 127, Kinross miss out on the finals by just two competition points after Centrals earned the final play-off berth with a win over Orange City.
Kinross coach Andrew Litchfield praised the intent his students showed in the face of a defiant Tahs.
“We defended a reasonably small total fairly well this morning,” Litchfield said, with Stu Crisp’s 4-16 helping Kinross bowl Waratahs out for 86, enough to claim a 41-run first innings win.
“For us, it was a really good game of cricket. We pushed for the outright and batted really well in that second innings.
“I thought we bowled really well too.”
Leading by 41 runs and determined to push for maximum points, Kinross openers Charlie Litchfield and Toby Polkinghorne shook off the accumulators tag to belt 83 off just nine overs.
Litchfield hammered an unbeaten 54 while Polkinghorne’s 29 not out was also impressive.
After a bold declaration 124 runs ahead, students strike bowler Sam Nicholls (3-13) took apart Tahs’ top order before both Brakenridge and Bailey dead-panned the final overs to smother Kinross’ bold bid for the finals.
“It nearly got us there,” Litchfield said.
In the first innings, Charlie Mortimer was the pick of the students with a dogged 45 after entering the crease with Kinross in some trouble at 4-42.
Adam Brakenridge’s 4-50 was the pick of the Tahs figures.
