Bailey Ferguson is fast-proving himself one of the Orange District Cricket Association top grade’s most-influential bats after notching his second century of the summer to lead his Cavaliers to victory against CYMS on Saturday afternoon.
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Having never scored a ton before this summer Ferguson defied the heat at Wade Park heat to smash an unbeaten 100, the sparkling dig sitting alongside his also-unbeaten 112 from earlier this summer.
With those two digs and and a pair of half-tons this season as well, Ferguson is now the competition’s leading run-scorer with 337 runs at a whopping average of 112.3.
His effort on Saturday, coupled with Matt Corben’s 96 and Josh Doherty’s 59 not out, led Cavaliers to 3-285 before they held CYMS to 8-271 in reply.
Naturally stoked to once again pass triple figures, Ferguson heaped praise on his teammates after the win and pointed to last summer as the catalyst for his remarkable 2018-19 form.
“I really battled last season, I had to work hard for every run and in all honesty didn’t really score many at all,” Ferguson admitted, he tallied 162 runs at 16.2 last summer.
“It was a good learning experience though and I’ve had to work hard since so it’s good to see that’s paying off now, I’m hitting the ball pretty well so I’ll just have to keep doing the hard yards from now on.
I’ve had to work hard ... so it’s good to see that’s paying off now.
- Cavaliers' centurion Bailey Ferguson
“It was pretty tough out there on Saturday, it was roasting under the lid, but I got plenty of help from Corbs and Josh, they both batted superbly too and it was good for us to go on and get a good win.”
Ferguson came to the crease with the maroons in trouble at 2-16, joining skipper Corben.
The pair resurrected their side’s innings though, adding 160 for the third wicket before the latter was trapped in front by Tom West (1-35) just four short of his century. Corben’s had a superb summer too but incredibly, including representative cricket, it’s the third time he’s fallen in the nineties.
That brought Doherty to the crease, he and Ferguson adding another 109.
CYMS lost Matt Baker (0) straight away and while West (36), Tom Belmonte (21), Mitch Winslade (29) and Hugh Le Lievre (27) all made inroads, they couldn’t go on with their starts.
Corben did turn to a number of part-timers later in the chase though – even he bowled – and Adam Smith took full advantage, bludgeoning 88 to give his side a small chance of claiming an unlikely victory.
Eventually the green and golds needed 27 from Kaleb Cook’s final over but, with Smith already back in the sheds, they managed just 12 and fell 15 short of victory.
Mark Maybin (3-28) was Cavaliers’ best with the ball, with five others taking a wicket as well.
“It was a pretty comfortable win really but there was a couple of times I maybe felt a bit nervous, when Smithy got going in particular, he batted really, really well,” Ferguson said.
The victory proved a small slice of revenge for Cavaliers too, the only loss they’ve suffered this summer was an outright defeat at the hands of the green and golds.
It also pushes them to the competition lead, they share top spot with Orange City but take the upper hand on quotient.
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