Ladder positions meant nothing in the Greater Northern Cup at the weekend as four of the five winners knocked off higher-ranked opposition.
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Richard Howe’s Westbury were perhaps the most impressive of the winners, soaking up the pressure to muscle a five-wicket win over Devonport with just three balls to spare.
The Orions founded their innings of 9-198 on a splendid knock from number three bat Anish Paraam, who was one of four Devonport players to fall victim to a run-out late in the innings as his side chased quick runs.
Miles Barnard also scored 43 at the top of the order as Howe claimed 2-36 off his 10 overs.
Paraam (2-26) inflicted more pain on the Shamrocks by dismissing Dane Anderson and Matthew Battle cheaply but the Shamrocks wouldn’t lie down.
With Kieren Hume (75) leading the way, the Shamrocks strung together three good partnerships before Howe and Jake Williamson took the score to 200 in the final over.
“I thought 200 was a par score but to chase them down was fantastic,” Howe said.
“We left ourselves a bit of work to do at the 34-over mark but Kieren Hume hit some really nice clean balls and from thereon in Sean Stevenson and Jakey Williamson did a really good job to go at a run a ball there for five or six overs, so it was really pleasing.
“It was a really good effort from the boys, I’m really happy.”
SOUTH LAUNCESTON continued on its winning ways by sentencing the previously-unbeaten Burnie to its first loss of the season.
The Hurricanes won the toss but it was Knights bowler Casey Young who made a natural disaster of the Burnie top order, dismissing three batsmen for a combined total of two runs to leave the home side reeling at 4-19.
Skipper Brady Yates (38) and Nick Revell put on 58 for the fifth wicket before Jeremy Jackson (4-19) strangled the lower order to help bowl Burnie out for 117.
Jared Dakin fell early to the economical Josh Barry (1-16 off nine) but there was otherwise little joy for Burnie as South raced past the total inside 30 overs.
William Foster led the way with an unbeaten 71 as South claimed an eight-wicket win to go 3-3 for the season.
Skipper Alec Smith praised Young for a match-winning spell of bowling.
“He bowled really well and Jack Young bowled really well from the other end, they had a really good bowling partnership together and we were ahead of the game early on which was really pleasing,” Smith said.
“I was really happy with the way we played, it’s really good to carry on some momentum from last week and get a good victory.”
RIVERSIDE fell to its first loss in three weeks at the hands of an in-form Latrobe side.
The Blues restricted the home side to 8-168 from its 50 overs despite a half-century from Trent Keep at the top of the order but were unable to chase down the total, falling to a 47-run loss.
Michael Lidsey was the shining light in an otherwise disappointing batting scorecard, scoring 51 before becoming one of Nathan Avery’s three scalps.
Zac Nicolle (4-23) also caused plenty of headaches for the Blues, leaving skipper Tom Garwood to rue what might have been.
“We bowled really well today but none of our batters hung around apart from Mikey and we got bowled out in the 44th over so not a great result,” he said.
“Our top five didn’t bat very well, we were 5-50 again and you’re not going to win many games of cricket being 5-50.”
Ulverstone notched up a 37-run win to hand LAUNCESTON its second loss for the season.
The Black Caps made an impressive total of 7-218 on the back of half-centuries from Jacob Snare, Josh Walmsley and Darren Banham, with Clayde White and Tom Gray both snaring two wickets for the Lions.
Launceston never really threatened to chase the total down and fell to 6-91 before Gray and Matthew Woods made late runs to help double the Lions’ total.
Skipper Alistair Taylor, who missed the match with a broken finger, said his side hadn’t been on top of its game.
“It was a par score but we didn’t bowl well enough to give ourselves a chance and someone in the top six needed to get 80-plus for us to win today,” he said.
“We bowled pretty poorly in the first 17 overs, really well in the next 17 and then didn’t bowl well in the next 17 so two out of three of the sets we weren’t disciplined enough, we bowled a lot of boundary balls.
“We lost four quick wickets (in the middle order) and we were behind the eightball for the rest of the game.”
MOWBRAY tasted defeat in its first home game of the season with a 34-run loss to Sheffield.
Justin Reeves and Spencer Hayes both took three wickets apiece in the Mountaineers’ innings of 158 but the Eagles struggled to form strong partnerships in the chase.
Jarrod Freeman made 43 but ran out of partners as Sam Robinson and Aiden Marshall collected matching figures of 3-29.