In a fiery encounter Redbacks were dismissed for 139 before removing Dean Watkins, Yousuf Qureshi and Imran Qureshi in a tense last session of the day to leave Rugby teetering at 3-31.

Redbacks captain Ben Orme said in the lead-up to the match that Nathan Dennis’ spluttering batting was due to come to the fore and he was proven at least partially correct as 32 from Dennis anchored the Bathurst City innings.

Sporadic contributions throughout the order ensured that they would have something to defend, but until they had plucked out the late trio of wickets, it had been a day dominated by Rugby Union.

“The game is certainly in the balance, no doubt about that,” Redbacks wicketkeeper John Rudge said.

“The pitch wasn’t overly bad, it didn’t bounce a lot and the odd ball kept very low, so the batsmen had to play very straight. One hundred-and-thirty-eight wasn’t all that bad, but we certainly felt it was under par.

“But we came out and did exactly what we needed to do in the last hour, Nathan Dennis, Matt Willis and Kel Cooke all picked up wickets, so we need to come out firing early next week now and really go on with it. We’re more than comfortable with the situation we are in at the moment.”

With first use of the ball, Rugby took regular wickets throughout Bathurst City’s innings but were best served by in-form leg-spinner Watkins who bagged four wickets.

He was ably assisted by Jim Stanbridge who picked up two while Chris Albon and Alex Miller also struck.

Cooke departed early after opening the innings and from there City were simply unable to build momentum.

Every time they looked like putting together a partnership another wicket would fall and they would have to start again.

Nonetheless, they will still take plenty of hope into the second day.

Rugby will need to once more find momentum after their late stumble.

“It was a disappointing way to finish, we rolled them for what we thought was a lowish sort of score,” Watkins said.

“We bowled pretty well in general, it wasn’t all that easy to bat and from the start we were getting the ball in the right spots.

“We still have Steve Locke and Sam Hope at the crease and we’ve got some strong batsmen to come so we are still a big chance, we have to get off to a good start this week though.”

With one of Oxford Centennials and ORC bound to lose this week barring a wash-out, the opportunity is there for either Rugby or Redbacks to jump up into the top two.

On the flip side whoever loses this match will almost certainly miss a position in the major semi-final and the double chance that comes with it.