Matt Stephen is the competition's new power hitter
Phenomenal. That's the only way to describe the innings of Matt Stephen on Saturday as the quick belted Rugby Union out of the park in ever sense of the word.
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Stephen was unbeaten on 70 when his side declared at 8-351. He'd hit 64 of his runs through boundaries and an astonishing 60 of them through maximums.
If the scorecard's on the money, it'd be one of the quickest and most brutal 70s of all time, and in Saturday's heat would have to be one of the most energy-efficient, too, hardly having to run between the wickets as he dispatched the ball to all ends of the earth.
It's That 70s Show reborn
Stephen's 70 was by far the impressive knock of the weekend, but there were a weird bunch of scores in the 70s this week.
We're not sure if The Fonz has anything to do with it, but Stephen's 70 was enough to relegate Henry Shoemark and Jayden Ekert - who also both hit 70s with plenty of boundaries - to supporting roles.
Even Cavaliers' Bailey Ferguson, who hit a 55-ball 71, wasn't the fastest 70 of the weekend despite the 13 fours and a six on Wade Park.
Although someone forgot to flick Fletcher Rose the memo as the Centrals batter hit 82, selfishly refusing to throw his wicket away in the 70s to make this bit work perfectly. Lift, Fletch.
George Cumming is coming into his own
The Kinross tweaker took six wickets as his side rolled Orange City for less than 200 at the Country Club Oval on Saturday, showing why he's one of Orange's best young bowlers.
They weren't cheap wickets at the tail end of the innings, either, with Cumming taking the Warriors' most dangerous bats including Blake Weymouth, Shaun Grenfell and Lachie Coyte.
The tweaker was picked in the NSW Country Thunder State Challenge Side a few weeks ago and is also now the second-choice spinner for the Bluebaggers in tandem with Mitch Black, with the two left armers proving a terrifying tandem for anyone who comes up against them.
Can Kinross give the finals a serious shake-up?
Kinross are all but out of finals contention in the BOIDC, but with the side coming up against some title contenders in the next few weeks they have the chance to give the race a massive shake-up.
While Orange City, Cavaliers and Bathurst City would all have been hoping to sneak extra points with an outright win over the students, Cumming's spell showed the students have the chance to go the other way and spring an upset.
While there's still plenty of water to go under that bridge, with the students needing 168 runs with eight wickets in hand and hardly being known for their batting prowess, but they've shown sides absolutely cannot take them lightly as a 'gimme' win - especially if James Larkin returns to the side.
If Luelf and Brien can carry on next week, it'd be the upset of the summer.
Going slow in the heat
While Stephen and co were teeing off on the other side of town, Bathurst City took the opposite approach to conserving themselves in the heat - by crawling along at a snail's pace.
It's hard to hammer them without knowing what the pitch was like, so we're certainly not going after City here, but it cannot have been an enthralling game to watch with the side scoring about two runs an over for 70 overs.
Mitch Taylor took the cheapest five-wicket haul you'll see in a two-day game for a decade in snaring 5-9 from 13 overs, while Connor Slattery had just 40 runs taken off his 25 overs.
And to top it off, St Pat's came out with eight overs to face before stumps and scored off three deliveries, with the side finishing 0-5 from that spell before stumps.
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