Rugby a chance for outright win after McBurney’s seven-wicket haul

The opening over of the match was a preview to McBurney’s performance at the Bathurst Sportsground, as he took two wickets, that of Andrew Brown and Joel Gurney, both gone for ducks. 

At one stage McBurney was on a hat-trick, his seventh over claiming the scalps of Kurt Toole and Tim Ryan and he may have not got the hat-trick, but two balls later Paul Knight was gone for a duck.

Chris Redding and Peter Neave were the last victims to fall to McBurney, Centennials all out for just 71 runs.

McBurney’s total of seven wickets is the best performance from the pace bowler, bettering his two six-wickets hauls he claimed during the 2017-18 season, against Bathurst City in second grade and against City Colts in first grade. 

He put his performance down to the work he’s put in during training. 

“I was very happy with my performance. Training has paid off, every Thursday down at the nets with the boys,” he said.

“I was on a hat-trick. I would’ve been close to getting the third one but I ended up getting another wicket two balls later.

“We’re confident we can get the win. The performance by the Qureshi boys with the bat has put us in good order to go on with the win.” 

McBurney is the first Rugby played to take seven wickets in a match since Peter Francis, who managed that haul during the 2014-15 season. 

And while his bowling proved frustrating for Bulls, Dallas Tilley did give his side hope, scoring 30 runs at number four. 

Imran Qureshi and Chris Albon opened the batting for Rugby, the pair scoring 71 and nine respectively, outscoring the Bulls entire batting order.

Tim Horton hit two runs coming in at number three before Jameel Qureshi came out and hit a 90 not out, Rugby declaring at 3-194. 

Rugby skipper Sam Macpherson will be hoping his team can go on and claim the outright win. 

“Aidan McBurney took two in the first over and bowled extremely well for his seven wickets,” he said.

“All the other bowlers bowled tight.

“It was a great team performance and Imran and Jameel batted superbly. 

“We declared with about 35 minutes left during the day and managed to grab an important wicket too.”

The day ended with Bulls at 1-11, leaving Rugby in a strong position to claim an outright win.

When play resumes on Saturday, February 2, Bulls will have plenty of work to do if they want to claim win.

Rugby will be hopeful of getting the remaining Centennials batsmen out before the opposition catch their total, to claim maximum points.