It was a Friday evening filled with controversy as CYMS progressed through to the semi finals of the Royal Hotel Cup competition.
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Played on a Wade Park deck that Bathurst City captain Joey Coughlan described as "the wettest, softest pitch I have ever seen in my life", the pitch was declared unsafe for play 11 overs into the match and declared a draw.
By that stage Redbacks had been reduced to 5-35, CYMS duo Hugh Le Lievre (2-3 off two overs) and Vusi Sibanda (2-15 off three) having benefitted from the tricky conditions.
"The ball was spinning sharply and bouncing more than you'd expect," Le Lievre said.
"Seam bowlers getting balls to come up dangerously off a reasonable length. A few batsmen were hit and at that point the umpires decided that the conditions were unsafe and they decided to call the game."
Given CYMS had finished higher on the ladder than Redbacks after the cup's pool games, they will advance to the semi-finals.
While Coughlan said "it's not anyone's fault that it rains", he was disappointed with how things unfolded.
"I think we either should have played all of it, or none of it ... it was a very tough pill to swallow," he said.
"Once it's deemed to fit to play at the start and you get 11-and-a-half overs in, I don't think you should call the game off. It was a weird one, I suppose we just cop it on the chin."
Le Lievre agreed in principal that once the game got going, it should have continued.
"The cricket game was called off because the umpires thought it was unsafe, we as the captains had no influence on whether the conditions were safe or unsafe, the umpires make that determination," he said.
"It wasn't like they came to Mark (Day) and I and offered to keep playing, they came and said they felt the conditions were unsafe and that was the game."
The covers were still on when the Redbacks players arrived at Wade Park on Friday and after removing them to look at the deck - "I gave it a bit of a press with the thumb and it went in" - Coughlan was sure the game would be called off.
"I thought there was not a chance that we'd play on that," he said.
However, being a quarter-final the game proceeded. CYMS won the toss and it was little surprise they opted to bowl first.
Aside from a Mark Tobin slog-sweep for six, Redbacks struggled to deal with the conditions and the wickets fell.
It was shortly after Mark Day was struck in the elbow - Coughlan saying: "It reared up off a good length and it would've hit him in the head, but his elbow got in the way" - it was deemed unsafe for play to continue and a draw was declared.
Le Lievre added that it wasn't how they had hoped to progress through, but that there was nothing he could've done about it.
"It's unfortunate what happened on Friday night and it's not the sort of circumstances that you want to be in to advance to a semi final," he said.
"But nevertheless that's the way the rules played out and we just happened to be the beneficiaries on this occasion. It's not like we're basking in our advantage, it is unfortunate but we can't do anything about it."
CYMS will now play their semi final on February 19 against either Rugby Union or Centrals.
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