BATHURST City have shaded St Pat's Old Boys for day one honours in a see-sawing contest at the Sportsground in Bathurst District Cricket Association first grade.
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An entertaining contest was always on the cards with Pat's still having an outside chance of a finals appearance and City having to play for position within the top four.
The match delivered.
City finished the day in the ascendency at 4-77 after dismissing the Saints for just 111, but it didn't look like it would finish that way when Redbacks were 4-28 in their reply.
St Pat's captain Adam Ryan is still optimistic about his team's chances and can take some comfort from the fact that the game is so far advanced after one day of play.
It leaves the door open for a big second innings this Saturday.
"We failed pretty badly to only get 111 after being in a pretty good position," he said.
"We started well with the ball as well, having them 4-28 was a great spot, but they dug in after that and finished well. It is going to be a big ask for us now, but we are still close enough that we can give it a crack. You never know."
As well as Redbacks bowled for most of the St Pat's innings, Ryan and his team-mates were in shape for a decent total at 4-90.
They lost openers Connor Slattery (one) and Jared Rowe (18) to Adam and Ben Orme respectively, though Ryan was starting to look like he'd be able to back up his half-century against Blayney Bushrangers from the previous round.
Kurt Hancock (three) fell to Shabbir Dhamani to leave Pat's at 3-50, but the partnership between Ryan and Scott Traves was the one they were really looking to break.
They did that with the score on 66, Ryan departing for 36, and the situation was back in Redbacks' favour.
Nathan Dennis (16) and Traves (12) steadied, and the innings was on a knife-edge at 4-90. However, from that point it fell decidedly towards the reigning premiers.
Adam Orme and Matt Willis triggered a swift collapse that saw Pat's lose 6-21, Adam Orme (3-29), Ben Orme (2-28), Dhamani (2-8) and Matt Willis (2-11) all playing a major part.
With a real chance to kill off the contest before stumps, Redbacks had reason to begin their innings full of optimism.
However, Pat's seamer Matt Fearnley was ready for a fight.
He removed John Rudge (five) and Greg Adams (10) then claimed the big wicket of Willis (nought), while Dennis chipped in to knock over Kirby Earle for 13.
That had Redbacks at 4-28 and Old Boys were in charge.
Fortunately for Redbacks, Scott Rice and Dhamani were still at large and they dug in to put their team back on top.
Rice finished the day on 26 and Dhamani on 21 in an unbroken stand of 49.
Fearnley currently has 3-26 off 10 overs.
"They [Redbacks] deserve a lot of credit, they bowled really well and set good fields that made it hard for us to score," Ryan said.
"The hope for us is that we were 4-90 before our big collapse. If we could do a similar thing then suddenly we're back in the game and still a chance to make the semis. It is still a lot of work in front of us though, so a lot of things have to fall into place."