ONCE again a final wicket partnership has prevented Bathurst from finding victory.
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Bathurst had to settle for a tie against hosts Parkes in Sunday’s Western Zone Premier League game, both associations ending their innings on 214 runs.
The result at Parkes’ Woodward Oval has crippled Bathurst’s title defence and still leaves the association without a win in any competition this season.
Parkes looked dead to rights at 9-164 during their chase on Sunday but for the second game in a row Bathurst couldn’t contain a determined last stand.
Blake Smith (34 not out) and Sam Carty (20) helped Parkes salvage a tie in their 50-run performance for the 10th wicket.
Blue Mountains had brought down Bathurst with a 38-run final wicket partnership in the previous weekend’s President’s Cup game.
Remarkably, it’s Bathurst’s second tie in the competition this calendar year.
They finished all square with Dubbo in last season’s decider to split WZPL honours.
Imran Qureshi (49), Andrew Brown (48) and Ben Parsons (42 not out) were top scorers for Bathurst on the way to 4-214.
Ben Mitchell (2-19), Luke Powell (2-23) and Nic Broes (2-37) were the leading bowlers.
“The last two guys at the crease just batted well. They hit the bad ball, pushed shots into the gaps and managed to get twos where we were hoping to keep them to one,” Qureshi said.
“It was disappointing to not get the win considering how close we were. It was a great performance all-round by the boys, especially for a team still missing a few senior players.
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“Ryano [Adam Ryan, captain] was a bit shattered about it. He asked if we could have done anything different but I said to him cricket’s got a habit of doing funny things like that.”
Bathurst were patient in their opening partnership between Broes (24) and Brown, a pace which continued through the opening half of the innings.
Being 1-66 at the half way mark meant Bathurst had to lift the tempo.
An unbeaten stand of 67 between Ryan (24 not out) and Parsons lifted the run rate.
Opener Myles Smith (62) and middle order threat Zach Bayliss (41) helped keep Parkes within striking distance before Smith and Carty’s memorable last wicket stand brought the game to a dramatic conclusion.
Parkes required one run to win on the final ball of their innings.
Carty’s shot found Ben Mitchell at mid on. He threw the ball to the non-striker’s end to run the tailender out.
Qureshi said there were mixed emotions after the game.
“The only thing where we might have missed out a bit was that we could have gone after our runs a bit harder at the start,” he said.
“We might have been hesitant because of how our batting went against Dubbo [in round one] and Blue Mountains, where we lost wickets in clumps.
“Unfortunately at the end of the day there was nothing between us. I was saying after the game that playing in these ties isn’t good for the heart.
“It’s a really flat feeling. You didn’t win. You didn’t lose. You don’t really know how to feel about it.”