Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket: Bathurst City finals bid on track, Rugby Union's Jameel Qureshi takes six

Redbacks made their way to 198 after being sent into bat on a tricky wicket and wrestled momentum firmly in their favour at the end of the day by taking three wickets in quick succession to leave Rugby at 3-31.

Going into the last round of the competition Redbacks need a victory to give themselves a chance at finals and they did a solid job when under the pump, as Joey Coughlan (56) led with the bat.

No-one else except for Jarrod Urza (39) made the most of their starts, though many Redbacks batsmen pitched in with useful efforts to push the total towards 200.

Jameel Qureshi was the standout man with the ball for Rugby Union as he finished with 6-53 from his 24.2 overs of spin.

Qureshi played down his efforts with the ball, believing the Morse Park 1 wicket played a big hand in his scalps.

"I think the pitch helped a fair bit. It was very conducive to bowling," he said.

"It felt good to claim six though. I definitely don't have many five-fors to my name."

Rugby were chasing more success following Friday night's Royal Hotel Cup grand final win over Orange City.

However, Qureshi believes the team might have had a title hangover as they returned to Bathurst for their BOIDC fixture.

The team were their own worst enemy at many times, costing themselves many chances to have Redbacks out sooner.

"We were very ordinary in the field. I'd say we dropped around 10 catches and I think mentally we just weren't ready after the night before," Qureshi said.

"That's not much of an excuse but we should have been in a much better frame of mind. Redbacks turned up keen and batted really well, given the conditions.

"They batted great, and Joey in particular was aggressive, which I thought was the right way to be playing on the wicket. They had a few good partnerships and showed a lot of fight."

Rugby got off to a decent start in the chase at 0-29 before losing three straight wickets without adding any runs, turning the game on its head.

Ben Orme (1-16) and Coughlan (1-0) picked up the Rugby wickets - the third coming via a run out.

Qureshi hopes the pitch won't be as lively for his team next Saturday.

"I think it was a pretty funny sort of wicket," he said.

"It was a little soft and wet. Hopefully we get a dry week so we don't have that tennis ball bounce when we go back in to bat."

Redbacks will reach finals with a win and a Cavaliers loss to Orange City.

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