Thanks largely to Blake Weymouth’s half-century and Ed Morrish’s five-wicket haul, Orange City came out on top of Friday night’s battle of the Royal Hotel Cup heavyweights, downing Bathurst’s St Pat’s Old Boys by 12 runs.
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Weymouth anchored the Warriors’ innings to finish unbeaten on 60 as the greens posted 6-131 before Morrish tore through the Saints’ top order, claiming remarkable figures of 5-26, with the Bathurst outfit eventually skittled for 119.
Although that scoreline suggests a somewhat comfortable win for Orange City it was anything but, with the Saints mounting a late fightback that almost set up a grandstand finish.
They’d scored at almost eight-an-over throughout the chase but lost wickets consistently and after had falling to 8-90 in reply, Orange City looked likely to win easily.
Former Warriors all-rounder Scott Traves made sure his old club had to work for the win though, knocking up 28 late in the chase to give his side a chance.
Traves was the ninth wicket to fall with the score at 111 and at that point the Saints actually had a full six overs to knock off the remaining 13 needed for victory.
But that lack of wickets in hand proved crucial, the final pairing of Mitch Taylor (9 not out) and Martin Rudgley were only able to add another eight.
“They ticked along pretty quickly and kept themselves in it until the end but we’d set ourselves up pretty well with some early-ish wickets, so it was good to be able to finish it off,” Morrish said.
“We may have taken our foot off the throat a little bit towards the end but we got there, it’s a big win anyway but even bigger considering how many guys we had missing.”
The Warriors were without the likes of Stu Naden, Jackson Coote, Harry McGregor, Dave Boundy and Lachie Coyte, and Morrish heaped praise on the guys who filled in, particularly Andrew Gordon.
The former Western Suburbs star bashed 23 in the Warriors’ dig before taking 1-4 from his only over, snaring the crucial wicket of Traves.
“He’s got a world of experience and he showed it, it’s good to have the kind of depth to be able to call on someone like Flash (Gordon),” Morrish said.
The victory guarantees the Warriors a semi-final berth and puts them in the box seat to claim top spot in pool A, they’re still second behind the Saints but have a game in hand.
“It’s good to have that semi-final spot locked up but we’d like to run through the pool stage undefeated, that’s easier said than done because we’ve still got to play Lithgow and they're a good side,” Morrish, who picked up the wickets of Ben Mitchell (38), Adam Ryan (11), Jameel Qureshi (0), Tanvir Singh (3) and Brendon Cutmore (0) on Friday night, said.
“They’ve had the wood on us in recent seasons too so it’s not a game to be taken lightly.”
The Warriors face the Lightning on February 8, one of the four remaining preliminary games before the finals kick off on the 22nd.
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