South Launceston have their noses in front in the Cricket North first-grade grand final against Westbury after an intriguing second day’s play on Saturday at the NTCA No.1 Ground.
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Resuming their first innings on day two at 4-104, after dismissing the Shamrocks for 109 on the opening day, the Knights lost Casey Young for four to be 5-113 before Mark Nutting (55) and James Beattie (24) put on a valuable 53-run partnership for the sixth wicket.
Nutting then added 39 with Jeremy Jackson (9) for the seventh wicket as South built their lead toward 100 runs.
About an hour of play was lost to rain after at the lunch break but Westbury struck back again late on day two with Matthew Battle bowling Nutting and having Jackson caught by Daniel Murfet.
The Shamrocks wrapped up the last two wickets quickly to dismiss South for 209, off 90.3 overs with Jonathon Chapman finishing with outstanding figures of 6-54, from 26.3 overs.
Westbury began their second dig trailing by 100 runs and chasing quick runs but lost three wickets before stumps to finish the day at 3-60, still 40 runs in arrears heading into the final day.
Dane Anderson will resume on 24 not out and Battle eight not out with Jack and Casey Young and James Beattie picking up a wicket each.
South Launceston coach Mark Nutting said he was happy with his team’s position after two days of play but cautioned that a big day of cricket was still to come on Sunday.
“Westbury to their credit bowled really tight lines to us today and came out with intent with the bat late this afternoon to finish in a position where they are 40 runs behind us. “I expect they will definitely push for quick runs in the morning session given the two batsmen they have at the crease and if they stick around in the first session then Westbury will be aiming for a lead of 100-150 runs to give them as much time as possible to put pressure on us to bat out the day or get the runs.
“We’re being realistic about the situation and the game is far from over.”
Westbury captain Michael Lukic said the game was still in the balance from their point of view with a full day to play.
“We’ve made in-roads into their lead and our aim is to move the game forward and put ourselves in a position where we make it an uncomfortable chase,” he said.
“It was unfortunate we lost some time to weather today but we want to push along and make sure that we get a lead and give our bowlers something to defend.
“It makes for a good final day’s play but we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and we need those three sessions really going in our favour tomorrow.”
