Western claims first win of Country Colts Championship in dominant performance against Central Northern

Western thumped Central Northern by nine wickets at George Park 1 in their Twenty20 meeting as skipper Tom Coady (55) and Cooper Brien (44 not out) put on 101 together for the second wicket to chase down the visitors' score of 6-106.

Earlier in the day George Cumming led the way with the ball for Western as he finished with figures of 2-8 from his four overs, which included a maiden.

Harry Bayliss and Patrick Nelson (both 2-24 off four) were Western's other wicket takers.

There was plenty of pressure on Western to step up for the challenge after they were bested by Newcastle in the opening game of the competition, while their opponents Central Northern had wiped Central Coast off the park in their first match.

Western coach Garth Dean said the game couldn't have played out much better for his side in the field.

"Our bowlers, particularly our spinners, went really well. All the plans we bowled too worked. The spinners did a great job because we had to rest a couple of our spinners," he said.

"Cooper and Tom batted really well for their stand. Tom was really unfortunate to get run out in the end. It was just one of those ones that flicked the bowlers hand on the way through to the stumps."

Indeed, it had taken a stroke of luck for Central Northern to break apart the century partnership, as a Brien shot was flicked onto the non-striker's stumps by bowler Alex Stafa.

But by that point Western were sitting at 2-104, and Koda Sissian (1 not out) helped Brien finish off the job.

Brien began the quicker of the pair in his partnership with Coady, which had started due to Anthony Atlee's (1) early dismissal, and he would finish his innings with two fours and two sixes.

However, Coady began to pick up the pace and would hit five fours and three sixes on his way to 55 from 47 deliveries.

Brien pushed his average for the tournament into triple figures after he hit a match high score of 60 in Monday's opening game.

Opener Baylee Borrow (34) was the pick of the batsmen for Central Northern while Matt Holmes (1-13) was the sole wicket taker.

Western followed up their first win of the day with a much closer contested victory against Greater Illawarra.

On a George Park 1 deck that continued to offer a lot of bounce and spin Western were able to restrict Illawarra to 8-66 from their 17 overs (shortened due to rain).

But a first over disaster, which saw the centurion partnership duo of Coady (0) and Brien (0) dismissed in successive deliveries by Rhys Cattle (4-11), had Western in early trouble.

A patient knock from Koda Sissian (29) and some big late hits from Mikey McNamara (20) got the hosts home with five balls to spare.

Will Skinner had a great day with the ball for Western as he claimed 4-16 while Cumming went one better than his efforts against Central Northern as he took 3-8.

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