CITY Colts skipper Daniel Casey was in no doubt that his side would not have beaten Bathurst District Cricket Association first grade rivals Rugby Union on Saturday without Craig Berry.
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The number five hit an unbeaten 71 to help City Colts to a five-wicket win, his knock not only featuring his typical big hitting with five boundaries and three fours, but important ones and twos.
He and Dave Giorgio (36) made 110 for the fifth wicket to help Colts chase down the 213 they were set for victory at George Park 2.
“Bez [Berry] he’s always had the potential to do something like that, but it was good to see him and Dave score some runs,” Casey said.
“Bez rotated the strike when he couldn’t hit that boundary, but when it was there to hit, he put it away.
“He won the game for us, we wouldn’t have won without Bez there.”
Just as Casey knew Berry was crucial, so too did Rugby skipper Sam Macpherson.
After his side made 5-212, Macpherson thought they were a good shot at defending it and extending their impressive run against City Colts in limited overs fixtures.
But dropped chances off both Berry and Giorgio hurt the Bulldogs.
“We batted really well, we could have been more attacking, but we thought 212 was pretty good and defendable on that ground,” Macpherson said.
“We bowled well and created a lot of chances, but we dropped Bez three times and Giorgio twice and they went on to win the game for Colts.”
Rugby won the toss and opted to bat first at George Park 2, Tyler Horton (45), Jameel Qureshi (34 not out) and Ryan Peacock (69) scoring a bulk of their runs.
Henry Allen was the best of the Colts bowlers with 2-33 from seven overs.
“It was a hefty score, they constructed a good innings. They were pretty slow at times, but they had wickets in hand there at the end and stepped things up,” Casey said of Rugby’s effort.
“I have never played at George Park 2 before. It’s a big ground and really hard to defend when you are bowling. There are not a lot of boundaries because of the size of the ground, but a lot of ones and twos.
“In our innings we were in the same boat as Rugby a bit. We lost a few wickets before and after drinks and we were going a bit slow, we were behind the run rate we needed.”
Colts had made a good start with Henry Shoemark (39) and Matt Stephen (14) putting on 37 for the first wicket, but they then slipped to 4-87.
It took Berry and Giorgio to get Colts back on track with their triple-figures partnership, while Tony Clancy finished unbeaten on 12 as his team won with nine balls to spare. James Tristram took 2-39 and Macpherson 2-27 for Rugby.
