BIG O Burglars claimed their biggest scalp of the 2011/12 Merrin Cup season when they toppled the third-placed Harden at Tim Doolan Oval on Saturday.
The victory robbed Harden of the chance to move to outright second on the ladder after the Central Tigers were also shock losers on the weekend.
In a match that lasted all but six of the maximum 80 overs, the Burglars
finished with 5-176 on the back of another dominant innings from Scott Roberts before restricting their 10-man rivals to 129.
The fact Harden couldn’t field a team for the first match of the New Year, and a home game at that, must be of some concern to the premiership contenders.
In the face of a strong Harden bowling unit, the Burglars beefed up the top order with six of their most experienced players and, with the exception of one, they all made a start.
Dean Guthrie progressed to 11 before being trapped in front by Matt Schofield with the score on 20, before Jimmy Mitchell and number three Peter Louttit added 34 for the second wicket.
Tom Darmody broke the profitable
partnership when he had Mitchell caught behind by Jason Pollard for 22, however that brought Roberts to the crease and he signalled his intentions from the start with a four off his first delivery.
Roberts and Louttit were still there at
the 20-over drinks break, with Louttit becoming the second LBW victim of the innings when wrapped on the pads by Nathan Schofield when on 25.
Todd Basham only managed five, but did add 31 for the fourth wicket with Roberts who had powered past 50 and was
regularly pounding the pickets.
The First XI skipper dominated the scoring in the next partnership - a 48-run stand with Nick Heggaton that was broken when Darmody and Pollard combined again.
When Judd Kerrison came to the crease, Roberts was within sight of yet another Merrin Cup century, however with Harden opting to employ one of their younger
players for the final over, Roberts elected to allow his partner to keep the strike.
Darmody (2-32 off seven) and Matt Schofield (2-33 off seven) were the only dual wicket takers for the home side in what was a longer stint in the field than they may have expected.
Even with 176 on the board the Burglars would have been nervous given the
potential contained within the Harden side.
After a steady start which saw 17 runs come off the opening seven overs Dean Guthrie removed Nathan Schofield (6) and Tim Manchester with successive balls, Schofield shuffling back and getting hit low on the pads, while Manchester was well caught by Paul Smith.
Pollard, who never wastes time in getting going, spanked his first two scoring shots to the boundary as he and Josh Logue moved the score to 37 before Pollard was caught by Todd Basham for 15.
Logue fell four overs later and Harden’s chase was teetering at 4-44, however a
56-run stand between Matt Schofield and Darmody saw the home side fight their way back into the contest.
With 14 overs remaining they had moved the score along to 99 and were still a
realistic chance of reeling in the total,
however Roberts changed all that with the second ball of his second over, having Schofield caught by Judd Kerrison for 26.
Darmody then fell to a running catch by Steve Kerrison off the bowling of Hamish Basham for 31 and while Barron, who came in at number seven, made a rapid 16, he quickly ran out of partners and the match was over in the 34th over.
The bowling honours were shared with Mitchell, Dean Guthrie, Basham and Roberts all taking two.
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