CENTENNIALS Bulls are just two wickets away from opening up their Bathurst District Cricket Association two-day campaign with a first innings victory.
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Their opponents City Colts currently sit at 8-110 chasing the Bulls’ total of 157 at the Sportsground in a game which has been dominated by the bowlers.
Opener Ryan Gurney (46) did the damage early on for the Bulls but his top order teammates struggled to forge a partnership alongside him.
Josh Coyte (21) was the best of that bunch as the pair helped the Bulls recover by adding 43 runs.
The resistance didn’t last long as Daniel Casey (4-43) ate through the Bulls’ middle order, and also picked up the crucial wicket of Gurney.
With the score at 6-87 Percy Raveneau (35) and Tim Hunter (14) went on a determined recovery mission to add a vital 50 runs together.
Colts’ opening run stand of 31 between Casey (19) and Henry Shoemark (21) has been the team’s biggest partnership so far.
Matt Kelly (20) and Jaden Ekert (16) were the next-best batsmen for Colts.
Colts went from 5-98 at one stage to sitting at their stumps score.
Jem Nash added another four wickets to continue his strong start to the BDCA season, now having 11 to his name in the space of five matches.
It marks his best bowling figures since a 5-21 against Rugby Union in the 2015-16 season.
The chase is certainly far from over for Colts but it’s going to take a determined performance from the tail to salvage the opening innings.
Izaac Molenkamp (4 not out) and Cambell Morris (0 not out) are the batsmen at the crease for Colts.
However, with the match already well advanced going into the next day’s play there’s a strong chance the match can still be decided on the result of the second innings.
“It wasn’t too bad for us. We probably just lost some wickets at poor moments,” Bulls captain Andrew Brown said.
“We made some early runs but then we lost three or four quick wickets. Percy and Tim had a good partnership towards the end and that gave us the vital runs we needed.”
Brown said his team showed patience to put the Colts under pressure as the day went on.
“They started to get on top of us early but then we got a few wickets when we were bowling really well in the second session,” he said.
“Jem Nash finished the day with 4-18 and Chris Redding got 3-28.”
Redding’s wicket haul came after he added a vital 11 unbeaten runs at the bottom of Bulls innings – runs which could prove decisive in the battle for first innings points.