Led superbly by left-arm seamer Greg Martin, Cavaliers produced a match-winning effort with the ball at Wade Park on Saturday afternoon to reverse their first innings loss and secure an unlikely outright win over Kinross.
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After rolling the maroons for just 59 on day one to secure first innings points, Kinross resumed at 2-10 – leading by 74 – on Saturday in the hope of, firstly, batting for a long time and, as an afterthought, potentially setting the game up for an outright result.
The students did the latter, but not in the way they’d hoped.
Following up his five-wicket haul from day one, Martin took 3-12 to finish with match figures of 8-38 and help the maroons skittle Kinross for 63, setting up a somewhat awkward chase of 128 to claim their second win of the Orange District Cricket Association season.
They did it easily though, forgetting their batting woes of last weekend by waltzing past Kinross’ score for the loss of just four wickets.
Matt Corben (31 not out) and stand-in skipper Tom Aggett (31) led the way with the bat, while John Warrington (26) and Pat Harris (16) chipped in too.
“We actually bowled really well on both days, our fielding and bowling has been pretty spot on all season we’ve just been struggling to apply ourselves with the bat,” Cavaliers all-rounder Josh Doherty said.
“We knew after grabbing two early wickets before stumps that we were still a big chance of winning the game outright and Greg and Brad (Wright) really put the foot on the throat once they saw the opportunity.
“Greggy has been bowling beautifully, he’s struggled with consistency in recent years but he’s really turned that around this summer and is bowling well, he deserved every wicket he took.
“We still needed to do the job with the bat though and, for whatever reason, we’d let ourselves down in that department on the first day.
“But John and Tommy did a great job for us up the top and then Matty Corben showed his class to finish it off.”
Greg (Martin) and Brad (Wright) really put the foot on the throat once they saw the opportunity.
- Cavaliers all-rounder Josh Doherty
Doherty said after an inconsistent start to the 2016-17 summer, the character his side showed to remain in the fight and ultimately turn the game on its head could be season-defining.
“It was a huge win for us. We don’t worry too much about ladder positions at this time of year, but hopefully that kind of win will give us some confidence,” he said.
The victory moves Cavaliers up into fourth, they leapfrog Orange City, but also pushes the maroons within a point of breaking into the top three.
Above them happens to be the students, who slipped from second thanks to the loss and are in danger of dropping out of the top three should they drop another game prior to the Christmas break.
There’s one game remaining before the break.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
