The skipper captured an impressive 8-22 as they steamrolled Narrabri for just 103 and then overcame an early hiccup to cruise to a nine wicket win, and their first in this years competition.

Blake Uebergang (50no) and Alex Smith (39no) polished off the runs inside 32 overs after Ryan O’Neill (1-23) had trapped Taine Riley in front first ball off the innings.

Earlier Jai Tasker had given the home side the perfect start, picking up Chris Sargent the last ball of the opening over. Rodney Blair bowled Nick Smart the next over to have Narrabri in disarray at 2-6.

Skipper Lachie Cameron (65) and Tom Craig (12) staged a bit of a fightback, putting on 57, but things took a dramatic turn when Kenny brought himself on.

With his fourth ball he removed Craig caught and bowled sparking a flurry of wickets as Narrabri lost 8-40.

“We just got on a roll and got through them pretty quickly,” Kenny said.

He was on a hat-trick in his third over, and again in his fourth, the second time prevailing.

Cameron was fittingly his final wicket, giving him his second eight wicket haul and second-best career figures.

He took 9-41 about 12 or 13 years ago when he was playing in England. 

Having played at Varley the previous day, albeit on a different wicket, Kenny thought it was probably going to keep low.

“I just bowled straight and bowled straight at the stumps and we set a few fields for that,” he said.

His wickets reflected that with four of them bowled and three lbw.

“They (Narrabri) probably tried to play across the line a bit,” Kenny said.

He accordingly instructed his batsmen going out to bat to “play the straight ones on their merit and if they get a loose ball hit it”, which is what they did.

The win has reignited Inverell finals hopes. They sit on one win alongside Narrabri and Tamworth with one round remaining.  

Cameron thought they weren’t beaten as badly as the scoreboard looks.

The simple truth of it was that they “didn’t get enough runs”, Cameron concurring with Kenny that they were a bit guilty of playing a bit across the line.

“It was a really tough pitch to bat on. It was playing up and down,” he said.

That wasn’t to take anything away from Kenny who bowled some great balls.

It was always going to be tough to defend 104 but O’Neill (1-23) and Sargent (0-12) particularly made the Inverell batsmen work hard.