ANOTHER stellar Brad Glasson performance with the bat has helped Rugby Union maintain their unbeaten start to the Bathurst District Cricket Association first grade season.
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Former ORC batsman Glasson top scored for his side with 52 to help Rugby chase down Centennials Bulls’ total of 190 with two wickets in hand.
Bulls duo Andrew Brown (67) and Troy Kenny (82) produced a 121-stand for the second wicket to put their team in a strong position at George Park.
They couldn’t contain a Rugby Union squad who made headway with the bat through Glasson, Pirenu Nirmalendran (45) and Imran Qureshi (33).
Glasson’s score comes just a week after he hit an unbeaten 45 in the opening round win against St Pat’s Old Boys.
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Rugby captain Sam Macpherson, who claimed best bowling figures for his team of 3-22, said it was great to see Glasson come to the fore again.
“I’ve never seen him bat so well in the years I’ve played against him. He’s just really loving it at the moment,” he said.
“Bulls were playing really well, can’t take any credit away from them, but we knew that we could chase anything around the 200 mark. George Park 1 is a great deck for scoring runs on.
“We’ve got guys like Pirenu batting a number seven, and he also batted extraordinary as well. We’ve got SJ [Scott Johnston] and Powelly [Luke Powell] down the bottom who can also score runs.”
Luke Powell made sure Joel Gurney’s Bulls debut knock was short lived when he removed the opener for three runs, but from that point on Centennials captain Brown and Kenny began to build up a partnership.
Brown was gifted a second chance off a dropped catch and he made the most of it.
His dismissal at the hands of Aiden McBurney put the score at 2-127. McBurney also picked up the big wicket of Kenny to make it 5-180.
Rugby found themselves in a tough spot early in their innings when Chris Albon (13), Jeremy Thackery (1) and Tyler Horton’s (2) departures made it 3-35.
It was the 67-run partnership of Glasson and Nirmalendran that proved to be the match-winning stand.
By the time the pair were both sent packing Rugby only needed 17 runs to win. The blue and gold caught the Bulls’ total with four overs to spare.
Centennials spearhead Chris Redding was the best of the bowlers with 4-44.
“Bulls were only 60-odds runs at the drinks break so they were trying to set themselves up for those last 20 overs. We bowled well and only gave away a loose ball every now and then,” Macpherson said.
“There was quite a bit in the wicket – maybe even too much – because we beat the bat quite a bit, but they didn’t give many chances either.”