THE Bathurst under 16s have started the new Western Zone Premier League season with a bang, posting a comfortable 99-run away win over the Lithgow-Blue Mountains team on Sunday.

A big second-wicket stand between Ryan Peacock and Connor Slattery set up the victory, as they helped their team out of some early bother to post an imposing 9-229 at the end of their 50 overs.

In reply Lithgow-Blue Mountains were dismissed for 130 thanks to a thorough bowling performance led by Peacock and Jayden Burrow.

“We weren’t sure what to expect, they had an opening batsman who was part of the Mitchell under 16s team last season and a Western Zone 17s bowler, so they had some capable guys in their side,” Bathurst co-coach Richard Newell said.

“Their openers in the run-chase put on 50 and just for a while we were starting to wonder whether it would become a bit of a battle of attrition or whether we would be able to roll through them.

“Fortunately once we got a few wickets they started to fall pretty regularly. It still took us until the 46th over to finish it off, Jayden Burrow came back for a second spell and took two wickets straight away.”

After being sent in by the hosts, Bathurst were in immediate strife as Cody Sherman fell without scoring, but that brought Peacock and Slattery together. 

Two of the side’s most experienced representative players didn’t disappoint.

Slattery was the aggressor in the 119-run stand, making 66, while Peacock was happy to turn the strike over and keep things moving in his 43.

There was a minor hiccup when the partnership was eventually broken as Bathurst lost 3-4, but Kieran Lindsay (30) and Campbell Morris (29) didn’t panic, taking the score to 3-179 by the time Morris departed.

In the race for quick runs towards the end of the innings there was another mini-collapse, but it didn’t have a significant impact in the overall scheme of things and 9-229 was going to be tough to beat.

For a time, the home team made it look like they could pull off the run-chase as they thwarted the new ball, but the introduction of swing bowler Jacob Pepper brought quick rewards as he picked up two wickets.

He finished with 2-34.

Peacock came into the attack as the fifth-change bowler but didn’t let that worry him, taking 3-17 from 10 overs, while Burrow finished with 3-26.

Newell was quick to credit his batsmen with setting up the win after a couple of dicey moments.

“Any time you bat you can lose an early wicket against the new ball, so Cody was a bit unlucky, but Connor and Ryan got us going again,” he said.

“We had some luck too, there were a lot of dropped catches and if they were taken things could have been different, but after losing those three quick wickets we did well to steady and go on to a good score.

“It was a solid way to start the competition.”