Five things we learned from the second day of Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket's 13th round

And the best part is that none of those sides have completely secured their current spot on the table.

Top two sides Orange CYMS and Cavaliers are completely safe within the top four no matter what happens, although they could still get shuffled back down to minor semi-final if things go horribly wrong for them.

Five of the sides are mathematically realistic chances of making finals while it would take an unlikely outright win for sixth-placed City Colts over Cavs to give themselves a shot of reaching the top four.

Either way, we're going to get a balanced two-Orange and two-Bathurst scenario in the finals.

Now we just have to work out the order.

WE'VE written before about how well different teams have coped with coming back into the BOIDC fold on the back of a bye.

But was there any doubt that Cavaliers were going to have an issue with that?

Yes, they've come up against a struggling Centrals side in Saturday's first round back, but it still takes plenty of concentration and steady cricket to pull off such a convincing outright win.

The major semi-final is likely theirs with another victory over City Colts in the last round.

Cavs no doubt go even more fired up for Saturday's action after they easily accounted for Colts the previous night in the Bonnor Cup semi-final.

They've got themselves into one decider this season and now they've got their sights set on making it two.

It'll take some great cricket from their rivals to prevent it, too.

THEY narrowly missed out on an outright win on Saturday but Rugby Union are still excellently positioned to play finals cricket in 2022-23 - despite coming into this round in fifth spot.

As five-wicket taker Sam Macpherson said after his efforts over the weekend, there will be no room for complacency against the bottom-placed Centrals this final round, but Rugby will be massive favourites for that game.

There's even the mathematical possibility that Rugby can jump up to second place if results go their way.

The scenario is this: If Rugby can outright Centrals, St Pat's Old Boys beat ORC and City Colts can best Cavaliers then they go into a major semi-final meeting with Orange CYMS.

That's a lot of things that need to fall in place... But, hey, it's fun that such a possibility exists at this stage.

Rugby, who are Bonnor Cup grand finals-bound, have been playing excellent cricket of late and will back themselves to still be playing in three weeks' time.

They're also back for their first BOIDC game at Wade Park since they put 407 runs on Orange City back in round seven.

WITH his team's season drawing to a close Ed Morrish produced one of the best rescue efforts of the season against competition leaders Orange CYMS.

Not only did the Warriors skipper bring up 123 unbeaten runs for the team but he almost got his side to the CYMS total of 306, while hanging around on the final wicket with Ty Southcombe (8 not out) to force the draw.

Morrish brought every little bit of experience he's gathered up through the years to get Orange City within reach of a spectacular win.

It then took just as much composure for the skipper to hold on for a draw late into the day.

When you watch him at his best you can see why he's been the architect behind the Warriors' four-year ODCA and BOIDC title stretch between 2018 and 2021.

It didn't all go to plan for the Warriors this time around (they sit out the final round with a bye) but they're still too good of a side to be out of the finals picture for a long time.

Back them to bounce back in 2023-24 if they can keep their top players around and continue to develop young talent.

TIGERS will be sitting awkwardly in third place going into the last round of the competition, and victory is a must.

They have a six point buffer over both Rugby Union and St Pat's Old Boys going into this match but far much worse quotient than both of those clubs.

Rugby have a very winnable match against Centrals while the Saints and Tigers come together for what is set to be the match of the round.

If Colts also beat Cavaliers in that scenario then that would really put the boot in - sending ORC to sixth.

On the other side of the coin, a spot in the major semi-final is still there for ORC to earn should they beat Pat's and Cavaliers also go down to Colts.

It's a precarious spot for ORC to find themselves in after they looked entrenched inside the top two heading into Christmas.

Pressure's on.

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