LAST season Bathurst City may have been cursing the aggressive batting and smart bowling of Tanvir Singh, but when it comes to the 2020-21 Royal Hotel Cup the Redbacks relish those qualities
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It is because instead of playing with St Pat's Old Boys, the talented all-rounder is now Redbacks' marquee player in the Twenty20 competition.
On Friday night at Wade Park, Singh played an integral role in helping Redbacks to a 21-run win over Molong.
He blasted 42 off 27 deliveries to help Redbacks to a total of 128, his knock including a pair of sixes on a deck which at times tested batsmen.
"Tan was great, the boys got us off to a good start and he continued that on. Honestly he didn't look like getting out for awhile there and was unlucky when he did, strangled down leg side," Redbacks captain Mark Day said.
"But he was awesome, that's why we got him in. He hit them pretty well, the deck wasn't as good as we first thought it would be, but he just looked a class above."
Taking on captaincy of Redbacks for the first time, an experience he described as "absolutely awesome", Day opted to bat first after winning the toss.
Joey Coughlan (15 off 20) and Clint Moxon (25 off 22) scored at seven runs an over through the power play before the first wicket fell with the score on 47.
That was Coughlan and when both Moxon and Day followed without further addition to the score, Molong had momentum in their first cup game in five years.
But Singh, who is currently playing club cricket in Sydney for Western Suburbs, helped Redbacks to a defendable total.
"We started off really well, we were 1-47 in the power play which was pretty good, we were pretty happy with that and they lay the platform to allow the rest of us to try and go on with it, but it didn't really go as we planned," Day admitted.
"But I had complete faith in the boys, it wasn't a road like we first thought it was, it was a bit tacky, a bit two-paced and I thought if the boys stuck to our plans that we'd defend it."
Singh took the new ball with Tom Lynch (3-17 off four) and applied the pressure early to Molong's openers.
That pressure continued with only one Molong player - James Millner (18 off 15) - able to score at more than a run a ball.
Moxon backed up his efforts with the bat to take 2-21 while Coughlan (1-28) and Oliver Simpson (1-18) also found success. While Singh didn't manage a wicket, he did take a catch off Lynch's bowling.
"Tommy was unreal, he opened up with the new pill with Tan and he hit his lines and lengths and came back with two overs towards the end and bowled really good, he kept us in the game," Day said.
