A GREAT all-round performance by the Cootamundra representative team has seen them defeat Yass in the final preliminary round of McDonalds Country Plate played at Albert Park on Sunday.
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Yass captain Craig Irwin won the toss and surprisingly asked Cootamundra to bat and they obliged by scoring 7/167 from their 50 overs, Yass replied with 125 with their innings lasting 46.2 overs.
The outfield at Albert Park was very slow with recent good rain so scoring runs was hard, the match only saw 10 fours struck.
By winning the match Cootamundra has advanced into the semi-finals to be played at Tamworth commencing on Sunday, December 28.
Cootamundra innings was highlighted by a swashbuckling knock by Michael Cronin. The Central Hotel skipper who scored 87 on Saturday in the Twenty/20 competition was on song as Cootamundra built a competitive score.
Cronin came to the crease in the 38th over with the score at 5/94 and blasted 43 not out in an innings that included three sixes and one four. He was associated a match-winning partnership of 54 runs with Adam Twyford who made 16.
Cootamundra slowly built their innings with 38 runs coming off the first 17 overs. At the 34th they were 4/74 and with wickets in hand they smashed 88 runs off the final 16 overs to finish with the competitive total 167.
Earlier useful contributions came from Phil Gay who made 20 and Mick Butler who scored 24.
Veteran Yass spinner Mark Garland again showed his class. Despite being 48 years old the former NSW Country representative captured 2/17 from 10 overs, so accurate was Garland, he delivered 50 dot balls meaning that the Cootamundra batsman only scored off 10 deliveries.
Set 168 runs for victory Yass really dug themselves into a grave with some very negative batting.
Yass’s main offender was their opener Adam Forth. The right-hander although top scoring for his side with 30, occupied the crease for a long time and scored his runs at a snail’s pace facing approximately 150 balls.
At the first drinks break Yass were 1/22 from 17 overs, at the second drinks break they moved to 4/57 and when they had faced 40 overs they were 5/83.
In their final six overs in their innings, they upped the scoring rate smashing 42 runs.
The only Yass batsman to show any intent on scoring quickly was Robert Field.
A Yass representative player for decades, he scored 26 runs in quick time, a knock that included four fours.
Josh Purtell returned his best bowling figures for Cootamundra capturing 4/25 from 10 overs while James Smith enjoyed his first bowl in representative cricket capturing 3/31.
Again, the Cootamundra quicks did their job. David Garness finished with 1/15 from 10 overs while Dean Bradley bowled without luck to finish with 0/28 from 10 overs.
Joel Pearson again bowled tightly finishing with 1/19 from 10 overs.
In the final wash up of the match, Cootamundra shone through. Apart from a better batting performance, their bowling was disciplined. They only bowled six wides and two no balls, whereas Yass sent down 16 wides and five no balls.
In the other three quarter finals played on Sunday, at Dubbo, Blue Mountains 1/51 defeated Cobar 50, at Cooma, The Rail 9/197 defeated Monaro 99, and a real cliffhanger at the Armidale Sportsground Wauchope RSL 9/123 defeated Inverell 121.
This means that the four semi-finalists for the Country Plate are Cootamundra, The Rail, Blue Mountains, and Wauchope RSL.
As Cootamundra are the reigning premiers in this competition, they will be seeded number 1.
Seedings will come into play if weather intervenes and the long-range forecast for Tamworth during the carnival is 75 per cent rain.
PK
