Thanks to a swashbuckling debut from their new marquee player in Dubbo’s Ben Patterson, Cavaliers gave themselves the best chance possible of qualifying for the Royal Hotel Cup finals with a strong win over ORC on Friday night.
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Patterson pummelled 54 as Cavaliers posted a mammoth 7-173 before taking 1-17 from his four overs, helping the maroons restrict the Tigers to 7-144 in reply.
Friday night’s win was Cavaliers’ second of their preliminary campaign and it pushes the maroons into third, however, with two losses on the board as well and an ordinary net run rate of -0.318 they’ll be relying on other results going their way to make the final four.
Orange City, Bathurst City and Centennials Bulls all have 1-1 records with two games left, and can all finish with two wins and two losses as well.
Only Orange City boasts a worse net run rate than the maroons, as it stands.
“Benny actually said he hasn’t picked up a bat in a while, but he certainly showed his class,” Cavaliers skipper Matt Corben said.
“I’ve played a bit with and against him before and he said he was keen, if we make the finals he should be on board for those games too. But, he’s also showed interest for next summer, which is good.”
Patterson and Stu Middleton (17) produced a speedy, 46-run opening stand, before the former and Josh Doherty (40) added another 39 for the second wicket.
Corben made a vital 27, while Wes Lummis (11) and Chris Brown (10) also contributed handy runs at the end.
Dave Sellers (61) was excellent at the start for ORC, but outside Jeremy Judge (29) and Ricky Webb (17) none of the Tigers made a real impact in the chase as they fell 29 short.
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.
