RAIN may have ended Sunday’s Mitchell Cricket Council under 14s match between Bathurst and Blue Mountains at Morse Park 2 early, but that did not take the shine off the effort of the hosts.
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Bathurst was declared the victor on the Duckworth-Lewis method, with big efforts from Hamish Siegert, Cooper Brien and Thomas Lynch proving crucial.
Siegert (71) and Brien (57) put on 111 for the first wicket after Bathurst won the toss and elected to bat.
Their efforts set up a total of 5-220 from Bathurst’s 50 overs.
Thomas Lynch then got Bathurst’s defence of that total off to a solid start, the new-ball bowler claiming 4-9 off five overs before rain ended play.
At that stage Blue Mountains were 8-83 in the 24.5th over, handing Bathurst the points.
"We got to the 25th over and at that point we were 20 runs in front, so that gave us the win,” Bathurst co-coach Wal Brien explained.
"Two or three overs before that there were only two or three runs between the two of us. But we had them down about seven-odd then which helped.”
The match began in sunshine and Siegert and Cooper soon took control for Bathurst.
They saw the score into triple figures before Cooper fell, the effort impressing their coach.
"Batting first is something we like to do - get the runs on the board and make other teams chase them,” Brien said.
"Our two openers did very well, they put on an 111-run opening partnership, they had a very good run rate too.
"They were steady to begin with then they started to move on, they were averaging six runs an over there at the end.
"There were only one or two little chances there, but they played very well.”
Bathurst’s number four Declan Fawkner (39) helped keep the scoreboard ticking over for the hosts as he and Siegert formed a 44-run stand, while Thomas Judge chipped in with an unbeaten 21.
In reaching 220, Bathurst set Blue Mountains the task of scoring 4.4 per over for victory.
The task of doing that was made more difficult as Bathurst’s opening quicks Lynch and Harrison Field (1-11 off four) applied pressure.
Judge (1-12) also picked up a wicket to help Bathurst to their second win.
"In our first two overs we took two wickets and Tom Lynch went on to pick up four wickets,” Brien said.
"The fieldsman did very well, but we did drop a few catches and there with our sundries we had 20 wides, so there are areas to improve on.”