AT 2-166 chasing 187 for victory in Saturday’s Bathurst District Cricket Association first grade game City Colts were looking certain to get home.
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Colts did chase down the target of opponents St Pat’s Old Boys but they limped there following a middle order collapse of gargantuan proportions.
Only two wickets were left in hand for Colts when they chased down the target at The Scots School.
The massive collapse of 6-17 almost erased the efforts of Henry Shoemark (66) and Jaden Ekert (70) who had put on 113 runs for the second wicket.
Ben Parsons’ 3-26 from eight overs wasn’t quite enough to get the Saints their first win of the season.
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Colts captain Pat Hill had talked during the week about the team giving away games from winning positions and he almost had another game to add to that list.
“We spoke about capitalising on a good start. We bowled and fielded really well then started well with the bat,” he said.
“On other days games like this have gone against us but we’ve just hung on here.
“Jaden’s been seeing them like beach balls. He’s been very entertaining to watch. H [Shoemark] was just out there doing what he does best.
“Hopefully the other boys can chip in too and we can get some wins up.”
A couple of early wickets for Colts had them in a good position during the Saints’ innings before Connor Slattery (64) and Adam Ryan (30) got their side moving.
Dave Henderson carried his strong form with the ball over from last round with 2-18 off his eight overs.
Pat’s claimed the early scalp of Matt Egberts for a duck before Ekert and Shoemark dug themselves in.
Between them they hit 22 boundaries.
Their stand ended with Ekert’s run out to make it 2-126.
Shoemark continued to bat alongside Dave Giorgio (15) before the latter’s dismissal triggered a disastrous chain of wickets for Colts.
Dan Casey and Henderson departed for no score but Wayne Sellers’ small contribution of 11 in his Colts debut proved just enough for the team to avoid what would have been an embarrassing defeat.
“Our bowling still needs to improve,” Pat’s captain Ryan said.
“That second wicket stand with Henry and Jaden was damaging and a nightmare for a captain because when you can only have two fielders out at the beginning and they’re playing aggressive like that it can be hard to contain them.
“I was happy that the boys dug deep until the end. It could have been easy to roll over and let them have it. Effort has been there in all games but it’s just the execution that’s been lacking.”
Pat’s will look to recuperate next weekend when they have the bye.