AN incendiary knock of 77 in next to no time helped the Reece Renegades to a big win in their opening Peter Rogers T20 Bathurst Premier League match against the Screenmaster Rock Crushers led by Daniel Casey at Morse Park 1 yesterday morning.
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Matt Willis hammered seven sixes and seven fours in his knock which helped his team to 162 when they were dismissed in the 19th over.
Things could have been worse for the Rock Crushers – at one stage the Renegades were 2-153 with six overs to bat but a late collapse consigned them to their final total, still a formidable one regardless.
“The final score was slightly disappointing but I think it was always going to be a winning one. Maybe we should have got about 180 or 190,” Willis said.
“We needed to get rid of Dan Casey and Josh Toole pretty early and we did that so it was a pretty satisfying win.
“A few of our good bowlers still had overs up their sleeves too which was a good sign.”
Always up against it chasing such a big total, the Rock Crushers were dismissed for 98 in their 19th over.
Batting first, the Renegades lost Greg Adams (eight) early but Jay Cleary (43) and Zach Baker (18) moved to 1-48 in the seventh over when Baker departed, bringing Willis to the crease.
His first three overs at the crease past without too much out of the ordinary but he then took 18 off Evan Jones’ second over before he hammered four sixes and two fours from Wayne Loader’s only over.
By the time Cleary fell, he and Willis had put on 105 in eight overs.
Sam Knox (2-23), Casey (2-14) and Ben Trevor-Jones (4-15) all bowled well but the remainder of the attack felt the full brunt of Willis’ attack.
In the Rock Crushers’ reply things never really got going, and only Toole (27) looked likely to produce the kind of shots needed.
Trevor-Jones (18), Adam Bromfield (11) and Steve Drynan (10) were the only other batsmen to break double figures.
Shawn Lynch bagged 3-17 from his four overs and Max Hope bagged 2-4 to lead the way for the Renegades.