THE last time that ORC beat Bathurst City in a Bathurst District Cricket Association first grade two-dayer it was built around good batting, so it is little surprise the Tigers are intent on impressing with the willow again this Saturday.
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When the Tigers meet Bathurst City at Morse Park 1 in the second round of two-day matches this season from Saturday, Trent Fitzpatrick’s men will be looking for their first win over Redbacks in the longer format since 2013-14.
In that match Fitzpatrick and the Sellers brothers – Wayne and Dave – helped ORC to an eight-run first innings victory as they did well with the bat.
In both 2014-15 and 2015-16 when Redbacks bettered ORC in two-dayers, the highest individual score in the first innings from the Tigers was a 33.
Fitzpatrick knows that sort of effort will not be enough to beat the defending premiers.
“We’ve got to be on our game with the bat,” he said.
“We’ve got to concentrate on ourselves and what we’ve got to do. If we can bat like we did against Colts last weekend, then we’ll be right in it.”
As Fitzpatrick indicated, ORC did do well with the bat in the first two-dayer of the current season against City Colts.
It took some individual brilliance from Colts skipper Dan Casey – he belted 153 – to eclipse ORC’s 345.
“I think we did well with the bat, but unfortunately with the ball we just struck Dan Casey on a day where he was just too good,” Fitzpatrick said of the loss.
“We had them at 3-70 early on as well, but Dan is a quality player and he was too good for us on the day. I was happy with the effort we put in on both days though.”
The efforts against Colts which stood out all came with the bat – Dave Hitchick (125) and Dave Glasson (78) impressing on day one, while Dave Sellers (76 not out) and Brad Glasson (53 not out) were good on day two.
Fitzpatrick said those sort of performances do help ORC’s confidence in spite of the loss, and his batting stocks will be further boosted to take on Redbacks.
Jeremy Judge (69 not out), Evan Jones (62) and Clint Bryant (46 not out) all made handy contributions before Christmas and will return on Saturday after missing the Colts match.
Given Wayne Sellers (82) and Fitzpatrick (49 and 44) have also shown touch with the willow this season, ORC has the potential to both set a formidable total or chase down a score.
“We have got a strong top order, which is fantastic and it means if one of us misses out, then there are a couple of others who can cash in. That’s what it’s about, scoring big totals in two-dayers,” Fitzpatrick said.
“We batted out our first day against Colts and if we can do that against City, we’ll be right in it.”
We’ve got to concentrate on ourselves and what we’ve got to do. If we can bat like we did against Colts, then we’ll be right in it.
- Trent Fitzpatrick
ORC will be without seamer Joe Lemmich, but he will be replaced by the experienced Trent Fardon.
