A spectacular late-order innings from Launceston quick Tom Gray has turned the tables in the Lions' crucial clash with Riverside.
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Combining in a 110-run stand with fellow tailender Jakeb Morris (34), the 25-year-old made a career-best 87 not out to help take the Lions from 8-103 to a competitive 217 all out.
A run-out ended hopes of converting a maiden half-century to a ton, but captain-coach Alistair Taylor couldn't have been happier.
"If you asked the boys they'd probably say it's the best they've batted in first-grade cricket," Taylor said.
"It was Tommy's highest A-grade score and I was really proud of the way he batted and I think it was Jakeb's as well - they batted beautifully together.
"They hit a lot of balls at training and really work hard so it's good to see them get some reward and at a critical time as well."
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Earlier, the Lions had fallen to 4-13 before Nick Haydon (33) and Ben Humphrey (45) steadied the ship.
Even with Jesse Homan (2-4) going down in his fourth over the Blues had enough firepower to rip through the top and middle order before Gray and Morris dug their heels in.
Sam Lockett (4-72) took career-best figures with Lyndon Stubbs (2-70) the other multiple wicket-taker.
The final session saw Riverside reach 0-43 before losing their four most prolific batsmen to finish 4-70.
"It wasn't looking good for a while," Taylor said.
"They were going about four or five an over so to get those four wickets in the last 40 minutes of the day probably swung it a little bit but we're under no illusions - it's not going to be easy."
Runs were hard to come by at Ingamells Oval as MOWBRAY battled hard for 80 overs to post 130 against the reigning champions.
Four Eagles batted for one hour-plus but it was only captain Luke Scott (64 off 165) who made it past 20 in a mammoth effort that lasted just shy of 200 minutes.
Westbury's Liam Ryan collected great figures of 4-20 off 12 overs while Nick Spencer (1-9 off 11) and Kieren Hume (1-19 off 14) were particularly thrifty.
"It was a tough wicket to score on and they bowled really straight - you just had to wait," Scott said.
"They're obviously a pretty good bowling line-up so it was always going to be hard from our point of view, we just tried to knuckle down and bat the day."
The Shamrocks made it to 1-26 off 18 overs before stumps with Kaleb Williams, who gave James Storay a return catch, the only casualty.
"We got that early wicket and dropped a catch a couple of overs later," Scott said.
"I thought our bowlers bowled very well without luck at times - the first couple of hours next week will be pretty critical."