Mitchell wins Western Zone Inter Council title after tie with Macquarie

That’s because they finished all square with Macquarie in Sunday’s last game of the season at Dubbo, Mitchell losing their last four wickets for as many runs to match their opponent’s score of 156.

It’s a bittersweet result for Mitchell who looked certain to win their fourth straight game.

The team might have missed out on the perfect season but coach Garth Dean said there no reason whatsoever for his side to drop their heads. 

“They were the only undefeated team across the nine teams in the three age groups so they have to be proud of that,” he said.

“I was pleased with the way they improved across their games. One thing they bought into was the fact that if you find a way to use your overs then you win most of your games in that age group.”

Bathurst pair Mark Sheather (2-20) and Cooper Stephen (1-20) got Mitchell off to a great start with the ball when they had Macquarie at 3-30 but opening batsman Ayden Hunt (31) proved harder to shake.

Hunt’s dismissal could have triggered a middle order stumble for Macquarie but thanks to important knocks from Nate Bayliss (23) and captain Max Richardson (33) the total comfortably hit triple figures.

Toby Middleton (3-10) put a dampener on Macquarie’s momentum late in the innings but the batting side played out their overs with one wicket in hand.

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Mitchell’s other wicket takers Murray Staines (1-9), Riley Hoad (1-10) and Mac Hutchings (1-16) were economical in their four over spells.

The better of the batting starts belonged to Mitchell who got going through Tom Blowes (24) and Middleton (13).

Stephen came in at number four and hit a game-high 43 runs in an innings at the crease which lasted just short of two hours.

However, Mitchell’s middle order lacked the punch their counterparts had shown.

Hutchings’ 27 runs kept the fire burning in the Mitchell chase.

Where Middleton had cleaned up the Macquarie tail Alex Maas (3-15) was ready to return the favour to the Mitchell boys.

Maas removed Sheather, Hoad and an ill Ruben Newton in a short space of time to force what had looked like an unlikely tie.

“We got into a couple of situations in the game where we could have folded and lost by 50 or 60 runs but we didn’t do that,” Dean said.

“There were a couple of nice partnerships there with Mark [Sheather] and Mac and earlier on with Cooper and Blayde [Burke] where it kept us in the contest.

“Right at the end we probably should have won it but we’re happy enough with the tie because it easily could have gone the other way.

“We’ll have quite a lot of kids staying over in this age group for next season. It should be a strong team because a lot of our best performers this year were the younger ones.”

The result continues a strange run of ties this cricket season.

In Western Zone Premier League the Bathurst-Parkes and Orange-Cowra matches also finished all square.