Lights out for Kinross as Lithgow Lightning notch massive T20 win

After being held to 8-106 by the Lithgow Lightning, one of the light towers at Wade Park overheated and switched off, costing the game 45 minutes and six overs of cricket. 

It also cost Kinross some 20 runs off their total as the chase was revised to a 16-over innings, and the Lightning made short work of the revised target of 85, getting there with eight wickets to spare after just 10 overs. 

Kinross started the innings in strife, losing Will Luelf second ball of the innings, before Alex Brien and Sam Ridley also departed for ducks leaving the students 3-2 in the fourth over.

Logan Buckley joined playing coach Ben Ronald in the middle and put on 29 to try and steady the ship, with Ronald racing no time to put the runs column ahead of the wickets, launching a six two balls after Ridley departed. 

Stu Crisp (10), Harry May (17) and Phoebe Litchfield (11 not out) helped restore some respectability for Kinross, steering their total to 106.

Once play resumed after the light tower sorted itself out, Kinross struggled to make a start with the ball, with five wides coming off Hugh McIntrye’s first over. 

Ben Caldwell was run out for five, but Ben Sheehan and John Cronin took the game away from Kinross, Cronin whacking 30 before being dismissed by Stu Crisp, while Sheehan hit 34 not out before Josh Howarth hit the winning runs off the first ball of the 10th over. 

Ronald said it was a tough night for the students. 

“Lithgow were impressive, they bowled really well and made it hard for us,” he said.

“The pitch was difficult to bowl and bat on, it was swinging a bit.”

He said the limited total, while certainly not unfair, was a far easier target to chase and defend. 

“The psychological barrier to only having to chase 85, it was tough to defend so few runs,” Ronald said. 

He pointed to Phoebe Litchfield out as one who was solid with the bat in an otherwise tough night at the office for the students.