After posting 7-168 from their 40 overs, the Barry Smith-coached side routed North Coastal for just 63.

A great start, Smith said while there were a couple of individual performances, they were woven around what was a “really solid team performance”.

“I think every member of the team contributed in some way, whether batting, bowling or fielding,” Smith said.

He noted that they caught well, and also highlighted the application of the batsmen.  

“The most impressive thing for me was the boys played smart cricket when we batting,” he said.

They didn’t get sucked into going for the big hit like they’ve been watching in the Big Bash. They were content to work the singles.

Most of the time anyway.

“Jake House came out and hit three sixes in three balls.

“That got us the momentum in the last 10 overs,” Smith said.

They scored at about seven an over with House smacking 26 off 16 and Max Farmer an unbeaten 23 off 24.

“We set that up with some good solid batting in the lead-up,” Smith said.

Baylee Borrow (37) and Jack Hamilton (32), particularly, batted well at the top of the order, their 71 run second wicket stand really laying the platform.

Smith was happy with 168.

“We thought it a pretty slow outfield,” he said.

“I was pretty confident four an over would give us a strong chance if we bowled well, which we did.”

After Matt Holmes and Landan Price had done the early damage, picking up the two openers, Jed Collins (4-11), Kilian Apen (2-19) and Sam Johnson (2-9) finished off the job for a 105 run win.

Newcastle were also impressive, making 6-204 and then restricting Illawarra to 9-161. In other two games Riverina dismissed ACT Southern for 110 in reply to their 6-146, while Western chased down Central Coast’s modest 7-95 in 36 overs.