CRICKET
TOO much pace.
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If you ask Central West coach Dave Boundy, that’s what made the difference in Sunday’s Plan B Regional Bash match-up at Wade Park, with the Orana Outlaws’ quicks running riot against his Wranglers.
The Outlaws’ four-pronged pace attack of Jacob McNaught, Ben Strachan, Ben Patterson and James O’Brien - all boasting some serious heat - took seven of the Wranglers’ 10 wickets between them as their side romped home to a 62-run victory.
Batting first, Mick Curtale’s boundary-laden 55 led the Outlaws to a defendable 8-136, before the side’s pace quartet tore through the Wranglers’ batting line-up, rolling them for 74.
“Any loss is bad, you never want to get beaten,” Boundy said.
“I think the difference between the two sides was they had quite a lot more pace.
“If you look at the wickets we lost, I’m not sure how many guys got banged out. I think, off the top of my head, we had three or four guys get caught off the short ball.”
Outlaws coach Tim Cox was stoked with the win and gave McNaught, Patterson and O’Brien, in particular, plenty of praise.
“It’s a very pleasing win,” he said.
“It’s the first Twenty20 game of the season for a lot of these guys, whether it’s club or representative cricket, so it’s hard to get a gauge of where you’re at this early.
“About 140 would’ve been amazing so to get close to that, I knew we had the bowlers to be able to defend that kind of total especially with young Jacob McNaught and Benny Patterson. Then James O’Brien came on and did a really good job at the end.”
The powerful Outlaws side didn’t get off to a good start, losing skipper Mitch Bower (1), Anthony Heraghty (7) and Asher Robins (8) early, before former NSW and Victoria wicketkeeper batsman Nathan Pilon (24) and Curtale steadied the ship, adding 51 for the fourth wicket before the former was dismissed.
After Curtale got caught behind, the Outlaws’ lower order all contributed, pushing the score to 8-136.
In reply, the Wranglers never got going.
Central West lost Ben Orme (0), Joey Coughlan (3) and Josh Toole (0) early to be reeling at 3-12.
Despite a valiant effort from skipper Jameel Qureshi (31 not out) and Richie Venner (19), the Wranglers never looked likely thanks to McNaught (2-14), Strachan (1-16), Patterson (1-5) and O’Brien (3-15).
“In the field, and with the ball, the guys did a really good job,” Boundy said.
“To dismiss that Outlaws side for 136 was huge, in fact any team in a T20 game at this level would take 136 any day of the week I think. I don’t think it really came down to a lack of application with the bat or anything like that, you have to back yourself, and it just didn’t come off for us today.”
The win means the Outlaws progress to the next round of the competition, where they’ll take on the winner of the ACT and South Coast Crew match-up next weekend.
“I’ve heard a pretty solid rumour Brett Lee’s a part of the South Coast team, and I’m sure ACT will have a really strong side as well,” Cox said.
“Hopefully we can go deep into the competition.”