MATT Fearnley's destructive seven wicket haul in Saturday's Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket has put his St Pat's Old Boys team in the box seat to win their clash against hosts Kinross.
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The experienced Saints paceman tore through the top order, taking his team's first six wickets, before a run out left the students in all sorts of strife at 7-36 early in the day.
Fearnley picked up the penultimate wicket of the innings to finish with final figures of 7-49 from 18 overs, which also included eight maidens.
The day couldn't have got off to a better start for Fearnley when he had Kinross captain Will Luelf trapped in front for a golden duck with his first delivery of the day.
He then had Max Powell (12) and Alex Brien (3) caught before he castled Harry May (7) and Mac Webster (4) in quick succession to reach his five-for.
Not content to finish there, Fearnley added Nick Rasmussen (0, LBW) and Hugh McIntyre (3, bowled) to his extensive list of Kinross scalps.
Tim May's score of 69 added some respectability to the Kinross total but there was no taking the spotlight away from the Pat's paceman who had his best day with the ball in two seasons.
Bailey Brien (26 not out) and Andrew Brown (14 not out) have already got the Pat's chase of 152 off to an encouraging start at 0-48.
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"It's an awesome feeling. We won the toss and, knowing that James Larkin was away, we had to back our bowling so I'm glad I was able to do that," Fearnley said.
"The wicket obviously helped me out with a bit of inconsistent bounce. I probably tried to bowl a little straighter and go for the stumps and that paid off. With that variable bounce I was just trying to hit that off peg."
"I guess I've still got it so I'll have to play for a bit longer now."
It's the best haul for Fearnley since he took 8-73 against City Colts in the 2016-17 season.
He's now equal second on the BOIDC wicket takers list for this season on 14, at an average of 15.79.
The big day for Fearnley follows on from one of Saints' several junior talents, Aidan Macauley, taking 6-8 in the previous round.
Fearnley said the future's looking bright for the Saints' bowling stocks.
"With the young team we've got, which includes Mitch Taylor and Ethan Ivory, it's great that it's not the one person dominating," he said.
"I haven't got that many wickets in one day for several years. It's great seeing other people chipping in with wickets."
Pat's can move to a 3-1 win-loss record next Saturday when Brien and Brown return to the crease at Kinross' main oval.