First up win in Western Premier League

With a new-look side under the leadership of Tom Belmonte, we went into Sunday’s Western Premier League first round match against Dubbo looking to make a positive start to our representative season.

Winning the toss, we elected to bat against Dubbo, on a Wade Park track that had yielded over 500 runs the day before. With Belmonte and CYMS team-mate George Fisher opening the batting, we got off to a flying start putting 60 on the board before Belmonte was bowled by Dubbo skipper, Marty Jeffrey. Belmonte’s entertaining innings of 41 off 27 balls included 4 sixes, one onto the Cricket Centre roof in the first over that required the ball to be replaced and other monster a few overs later that landed on the roof of the grandstand.

Cohen Schubert joined Fisher at the crease to push the score along to 105 before Fisher became Jeffrey’s second victim after making 54 from 45 deliveries. The Dubbo slow bowlers then started to take away some of our momentum as they slowed the run rate, and even though most of our batters made starts, we started to lose wickets on a more regular basis and were 8/175 in the 38th over when Aditya Adey was joined by Harry Dyer at the crease. The pair then set about putting the finishing touches to our innings, adding 65 at almost a run a ball before Adey was run out in the final over. With the addition of a few more runs, we finished our 50 overs at 9/245.

Our bowlers came out after the lunch break ready for the task at hand. Our opening pair of Ed Morrish and Lachie Wykes made early inroads, as first Ed removed Joey Coughlan and then Lachie bowled Fletcher Hyde to have Dubbo 2/23. With Marty Jeffrey and Charlie Kempston at the crease, the visitors clawed their way back into the match on the back of their 88 run partnership. Tom Blowes then struck a double blow, removing Kempston and then Tom Nelson the very next ball to leave Dubbo 4/111 in the 24th over. Some tight bowling from Hayden Griffith reaped rewards as he had Ben Wheeler out caught. When Blowes struck again to remove Ant Atlee, Orange held the upper hand with Dubbo 6/131.

Dubbo once again looked to build some momentum in their innings with Tom Atlee joining Jeffrey at the crease, but a brilliant piece of fielding from Aditya Adey had Jeffrey short of his crease on 85, and Dubbo at 7/173, still requiring 73 runs for victory. Adey then removed Ben Knaggs a short while after before Cohen Schubert and Ed Morrish finished off the Dubbo innings to secure our victory by 35 runs, and our first over Dubbo in 8 years. Tom Blowes returned the figures of 3/45 from his 10 overs, while Ed Morrish picked up 2/27 from his 8.5 overs. Lachie Wykes, Hayden Griffith, Aditya Adey and Cohen Schubert each picked up a wicket.

It was a fine team effort, with some strong performances with the bat, a good all round bowling effort backed up by some good catching, with both Tom Blowes and George Fisher taking a couple of outfield catches each.

Our next match is against Lachlan in Parkes next Sunday.

Orange 9-245 (George Fisher 54 Tom Belmonte 41 Harry Dyer 34no Aditya Adey 32) def Dubbo 210 (Tom Blowes 3/45 Ed Morrish 2/27) by 35 runs