A five wicket haul from Ryan Meppem spun South Tamworth to a bonus point win over City United in their Tamworth first grade day/nighter at No.1 Oval on Saturday.
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The ACT/NSW Country U19s reps’ 5-30 helped Souths skittle City for 103.
They’d earlier in the day made 162 thanks in large part to a defiant Mitch Smith.
He finished unbeaten on 23 and with Angus McNeill put on 35 for the last wicket after they’d lost 4-3 and looked in danger of being rolled for about 130.
“We had a reasonable start then it tailed away in the middle,” Souths opener Josh Crowe said.
“Smithy then batted well at the end.”
He and McNeill’s stand got them “from a mediocre total to a very competitive total on this field.”
Crowe played a big part in that “reasonable start” hitting 28 before Meppem made 21.
Tait Jordan (3-30), Andrew Baines (3-21) and Mackenzie Morrison (3-38) shared the wicket spoils for City, who then from 3-49 were floundering at 9-74 as Meppem and Crowe wrested control for Souths.
“We bowled quite well at the start,” Crowe said.
“The game plan was to bowl nice tight lines. Probably more of a two-day line with the way the pitch was playing and it paid off for us.”
“The key was not giving any width for their top order batsmen.
McNeill (2-29) and Troy Osborne did a good job early, Osborne (1-9) coming on a bit earlier than anticipated after Tom O’Neill picked up a side injury in his first over.
Meppem and Crowe (2-24) then really tightened things up through the middle and “put the squeeze on”.
Similar to Souths earlier, City did show some late resistance with Morrison (27no) and Daniel Rae (7) adding 29 for the last wicket. The reintroduction of McNeill quickly put paid to that though, the quick bowling Rae the fourth ball of his return over.
“It’s a pretty heartbreaking loss for us,” City skipper Brad Smith.
“We had them well and truly on the ropes.”
The partnership between Smith and McNeill really hurt them, he said.
“In hindsight that put the nail in the coffin,” he said.
Not that he was too concerned about chasing 163. He thought 200 was probably a par score.
“We just didn’t ball well enough,” he said.
“We were just not patient enough.”
Especially against the spinners.
“We’ve got to be a bit more patient, a bit more disciplined,” he said.
In saying that, he said they were a bit unlucky, with a couple of chop-ons.