A PARTNERSHIP packed with powerful shots from Derryn Clayton and Dave Sellers helped take Bathurst to a four wicket win over Parkes on Sunday and into the quarter-finals of the NSW McDonalds Country Cup.
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‘Dez’ Clayton (69) and Sellers (44 not out) helped rescue Bathurst from an uneasy position of 5-101 at The Scots School to help bring their team close to the Parkes total of 225.
Even with time on their side the hard-hitting duo were intent on sending the ball to the boundary as much as possible.
In their time at the crease the pair racked up 16 boundaries (eight fours, eight sixes).
Parkes gave themselves a shot at victory when Clayton was caught to make it 6-202 but a solid knock from Aaron Seymour (12 not out) made sure Bathurst will represent Western Zone in the competition’s quarter-finals.
The other strong contribution in the Bathurst innings came from an in-form Josh Toole with 51.
“I don’t think we played our best cricket today but we still got away with the win,” Bathurst captain Jameel Qureshi said.
“We bowled well though I thought our fielding was pretty ordinary. We’ve got to improve there bigtime.
“It was very pleasing to see Dave and Derryn play a really good innings at the end there to get us over the line.
“You’re always on the end of your seat when Derryn’s batting but he can hit a cricket ball. He’s the hardest hitter in town, that’s for sure.”
Parkes’ innings featured several small contributions throughout the order with the standout performance coming from opener Peter Yelland, who picked up 53.
The second wicket partnership of 52 between Yelland and Zac Bayliss (24) was the biggest of the day for Parkes, ending at 2-82 with the latter’s dismissal.
Opener Anthony Heraghty was the equal second highest scorer with 24.
Joey Coughlan (3-39) was the leading wicket-taker for Bathurst and Ben Parsons (2-49) was the other bowlers to take two or more scalps.
The Bathurst innings got off to a shaky start with the dismissal of Imran Qureshi (2) but Henry Shoemark (13) helped steady the ship.
The injection of spinner Jacob Harvey into the attack worked wonders for Parkes as he removed Jameel Qureshi (1), Toole and Coughlan (6) to finish with his side’s best figures of 3-43.
However, there seemed to be no solution for the aggressive cricket Clayton and Sellers brought to the crease.
A mistimed pull shot from Clayton brought Parkes back into the contest but Bathurst were still able to chase the target down with 12 overs to spare.
Parkes’ other wickets were taken by opening bowlers Phil Dunford (2-43) and Brent Tucker (1-41).
Visiting captain Heraghty was still pleased with the performance from his team.
“Obviously when we got Jameel, Imran and Tooley out we were always in with a show but we were beaten by a better side and the bloke who got all their runs [Clayton] didn’t miss many,” he said.
“That’s cricket. We’ll just go back to the drawing board and look towards the Grinstead Cup now.
“Anything over 200 is always defendable, especially with our bowling side, but no-one had a bad game today. We were just beaten by a better side.”
