With the Orange Invitational XI reeling at 2-4 and still more than 150 runs to make their South Coast opponents would have been relishing the situation.
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But what they didn’t count on was the arrival of Nick Murphy at the wicket at number four.
One six, 15 fours and an incredible 109 runs later Murphy and Ben Anderson (22 not out) had destroyed their attack setting up an impressive victory in the second game of the Western NSW Under-13 Cricket Carnival in Orange on Tuesday.
Murphy opened his account with a boundary and was soon hitting his stride, belting the ball around the park.
In the end he contributed 109 out of the 154 runs in the team total to chase down South Coast’s 8-152.
Murphy also topscored for Orange in their first game of the tournament on Monday when he hit 27 out of the team total of 80.
It was not enough for victory as opponents Mosman hit 125.
Orange District Junior Cricket Association president Dave Cumming said a century in this competition was rare.
“Last year, there were none in the under 13s or under 15s. We probably have had two in the last four years.”
And he said it was against quality bowling.
“It is pretty rare.”
He said cricketers in this age group were used to having to retire at 30 or 40 in their normal games to give other players a bat.
“So to step up and play 50 overs and get a century is impressive.”
The Mitchell team has had a tougher time losing both its first two games.
It went down to Blacktown on Monday when its score of 100 was passed by the Sydney team in 24 overs.
On Tuesday Mitchell managed 59 runs in their pursuit of the Northern District Junior Cricket Association’s 7-179.
Cumming said the Mitchell team was down on players and had not been able to select all the talent it had hoped to.
However, he said the players who were representing the region were playing well.
Cumming said it was looking likely that two Sydney powerhouses in the undefeated Blacktown and Parramatta teams were looking likely to be in the final.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself but they are looking likely,” he said.
Day three of the carnival on Wednesday will see the Orange Invitational XI play Shoalhaven while Mitchell will tackle the undefeated Illawarra side.
Parramatta will play Manly and Blacktown will play Lachlan.
Cumming said he was pleased with how the tournament had gone so far.
“Fantastic, it’s our biggest yet to have 16 teams from across NSW playing,” he said.