It’s not often you hear of a bowler picking up six wickets in an innings.
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But that’s just what Dale Wellington did on Saturday as the Wingello Tigers claimed first innings points in its match against Hill Top.
The first round of the Highlands District Cricket Association (HDCA) two-day competition was completed on Saturday, with wins to both the Tigers and Bowral.
The week before, Wingello dominated with the bat at Welby to post a total of 9-295.
Kookaburras captain Alex Debs had hoped for a few strong partnerships in the first innings but it was not to be.
Hill Top was dismissed for 160 before Wingello enforced the follow on.
At that stage the Tigers still had a chance to claim an outright victory but a couple of handy scores from Simon Reid (90) and Tim Goldfinch (75) for Hill Top meant they had to settle with first innings and bonus points.
Wellington was the pick of the bowlers on Saturday with 6-45 off 10.3 overs in the first innings while the rest of the bowlers also chipped in throughout the day.
“He’s been unlucky this year so far, so it’s good to see him do well,” Tigers captain Grant Pike said.
‘It was a pretty good performance all round with bat and ball. With the table as tight as it is I think every point is going to count.”
Over the next two weeks, Wingello will face Bowral.
“We just need to keep working on our fielding, that’s where we’ve picked up over the last week. We took our catches [on Saturday] and there were a couple of run outs,” Pike said.
For Debs, it was another day he’d rather forget.
“We didn’t play well and we didn’t deserve to win,” he said.
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“Batting has been an issue for us all season. We’re just not applying ourselves and valuing our wicket. If we can turn that around we’ll see some good results.”
While there have been some solid individual efforts from Hill Top players at the crease, Debs said those that were scoring runs needed to be supported by the rest of the team.
They will be hoping for a quick improvement when they face Robertson-Burrawang this weekend.
After coming off a loss against Bowral, Robertson will also be keen to bounce back.
“They’ll [Robertson] feel like they’ve got a point to prove,” Debs said.
“Hopefully we can turn it around quick smart. We need to start focusing on ourselves and not worry about the other teams.”
Bowral also picked up first innings points against Robertson.
After the first day’s play, Robertson was all out for 212 and Bowral finished the day at 3-99.
Captain David Spies then led the way with the bat for his side, scoring 91 as Bowral went on to finish at 7-215.
Spies put on a strong partnership with Matt Norrie (47) to help close in on the total, while Stuart Macpherson (33) and Murray Burgoyne (20) also made handy contributions with the bat.
“We had a really good win. We were really patient and we got the job done,” Spies said.
After Bowral lost a wicket in the first over, Spies knew that while on paper the target was achievable, in reality it was going to be a difficult task.
The return of Nathan Ring for Robertson, who bowled “accurately” meant patience at the crease was the key if Bowral was to chase down the total.
“Last week the ball came onto the bat and this week it was slow going. Runs didn’t come freely,” Spies said.
Bowral has now won three of its past four games.
They will now face Wingello this weekend and Spies said they hoped to continue their momentum leading into the Christmas break.
“Things are starting to work out for us. We’ve just got to work in partnerships be it with the bat or ball.”
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