SO CLOSE: Orange captain Trent Colley.
ORANGE captain Trent Colley lamented his team’s failure to press on from a powerful position in Sunday’s President’s Cup decider against Bathurst, after it looked like they were poised for a far bigger total than their eventual 162.
Colley (75) and Luke Clarke (31) took a poor start from their team’s top order initially and turned it into 3-111 with plenty of overs left in the bank but once Colley departed things unravelled in quick time.
They lost 6-13 to be dismissed, and chasing a total a lot lower than what they may have envisaged at one point, Bathurst had little trouble chasing it down despite losing Jameel Qureshi (0) early.
“Losing 6-10 or whatever it was, you’re never going to win many matches when that happens,” Colley said.
“A lot of us played pretty irresponsible shots. I’ve got to put my hand up and take the blame for that as well after I got myself set.
“It was well set up for a big total. If we post 100 in those last 15 overs or something than obviously we’re going to have a far greater chance of victory.
“I have to give credit to Bathurst though, they kept putting the ball in pretty good areas and Josh Toole set some good fields and made it hard for us at times.”
One pleasing aspect of the Orange performance was the effort of Chris Novak who had a tough day during the opening match against Blue Mountains before rebounding to take 3-29 from his eight overs against his former Bathurst team-mates.
“That was definitely the best spell he’s bowled this season. He was impressive and I also thought Dave Boundy (1-14) bowled quite well initially also,” the captain said.
“The way cricket is now though, players will always give you chances with how aggressively people play, and we had a couple but couldn’t take them.
“Brendan Inwood and other guys in the Bathurst side backed themselves and they played some unorthodox shots and that’s what Bathurst needed at the time and it worked.”