North Sportsmen’s 3/72 d Naracoorte 70
NORTH Sportsman’s was all class when it climbed the Country Living Homes Twenty20 competition ladder with a comfortable victory over Naracoorte at McCorquindale Park on Sunday.
The Tigers’ captain Michael Silvy won the toss and elected to bowl first with the intention to chase the runs provided.
However, Naracoorte reached just 70 runs and was all out by the 18th over due to strong all-round bowling from its competition.
Matthew McInerney was best with the ball with 3/12 off four overs and was well supported by Josh Fidler and Tim Young who managed two apiece.
Nick McInerney, Declan Kenny and Silvy also chipped in with one each.
With just 71 runs needed to claim the win, North went in to bat with confidence.
Openers Jake Schutz and Matthew McInerney went to work early and reached 37 runs before the latter lost his wicket on 29.
North was over the half-way mark and had batted out just six overs before Nick McInerney padded up.
He added a quick nine runs before his time at the crease was up.
Kenny contributed with a solitary run before he was sent walking and his position was filled with Silvy.
Silvy combined well with Schutz and sealed the game with a six, finishing with a personal tally of nine not out.
Meanwhile, Schutz put together a patient performance to finish with an unbeaten 23.
North reached 72 runs in the 11th over with seven wickets in hand, which was a performance Barber Shield captain Young was pleased with.
“We did it quite easily in the end,” he said.
“We have a strong bowling line-up and the good thing is we have six or seven bowlers we can turn to and everyone is up to the standard and capable of taking the wickets.
“We came in to bat with confidence we could get the job done in the early overs of the game.”
Young said he was impressed with Schutz’s performance with the bat both on Sunday and throughout all forms of cricket this season.
“Schulta is in the best form of his life at the moment, he is averaging about 90 in all forms of cricket and just doesn’t get out,” he said.
“He values his wicket and knows his role.
“He isn’t the shot maker, he holds up the other end and gets the singles.
“He has been a very valuable player and has done an extremely good job so far.”
Young said it was an advantage to bowl first and as a team know your winnable target.
“We work better as a team when we know what score we need to chase,” he said.
“But in saying that we didn’t want to bat stupid and try and to win in the first five overs of the match because we would lose too many wickets doing that.
“We didn’t have to go overboard and try and hit boundaries but we did the job in 11.1 overs quite comfortably.”
North Sportsmen’s is yet to be informed on who it will face in the next round of the Twenty20 competition.
