Shamrocks skipper Murfet stands tall on wild day of ducks, run outs, feats

What a crazy day of Cricket North action.

We're now left with a Westbury versus Riverside match hanging in the balance while South Launceston are in the box seat against Mowbray in round three of the two-dayers.

Westbury made 183 from 60 overs and Riverside are 5-103 from 34 overs.

Mowbray made 164 from 59 overs and South are 4-135 from 36 overs at NTCA no. 2 in the annual Ponting Young Memorial Shield match.

Ingamells Oval saw most of the chaos with the Shamrocks and Blues suffering three ducks apiece. Riverside also had two run outs.

Meanwhile, Westbury captain and opener Daniel Murfet was left on 97 not out from 157 balls with only four of the line-up making it past 10.

Murfet said unfortunately the scorecard didn't reflect how nice the wicket was for batting.

He said it may have been a bit tricky to get in with the slower pace of the wicket but once in, it was ideal with little seam movement or other concerns.

"It was a little bit slow going early, but we knew it was a really hard, flat wicket and if you took your time you'd be able to catch up later," he said.

"After lunch, it felt like scoring was becoming quite easy, it was a really fast outfield.

"It just so happened that at the same time we were losing quite a few wickets which made it a bit trickier to make the most of that feeling."

Overall, he said the team felt they left a lot of runs on the table.

The skipper had praise for Joe Griffin who got both run outs on a day where the Shamrocks knew they had to take their half-chances.

"He was at backward point and he was charging in," Murfet said.

"Both (run outs) were in a very similar fashion, they thought they could sneak a quick single.

"He was up and about and had the poise to polish the throw off and James Tyson was over the stumps ready to take (the bails) off."

Muret also lauded Ollie Wood who bowled 11 overs straight after the innings break and trapped Ben Kidd and Peter New lbw for ducks.

While backing his group in to take the remaining five wickets for less than 80 runs, Murfet said the Shamrocks would have to be right on their game.

Riverside's Lyndon Stubbs (5-44) - for the second week in a row - and South captain Jeremy Jackson (5-62) picked up the five-fors.

Jackson, a spinner, teamed up with wicket-keeper Nathan Philip for two stumpings.

While Jackson took the most wickets, 16-year-old spinner Jack Crane had a big day taking his highest first-grade wicket-haul of 4-31 from 16 overs.

The skipper said the seamers started well and applied pressure early before the spinners came on.

"It was pretty clear spin was going to be effective on that wicket so we stuck with that for most of the rest of the day," Jackson said.

"We were able to create opportunities for wickets pretty regularly and enough of them stuck and went to hand."

Jackson said Crane, a right-arm off-spinner, bowled beautifully.

"He's been bowling well for a while now in our team but probably at times hasn't got the reward that he deserved for his bowling spells," he said.

First-drop Mackenzie Barker was handy on return with 31 while Philip finished unbeaten on 36.

Mowbray's James Storay claimed three pegs on day one of his 200th senior match for the club while Luke Scott played a captain's innings with a half-century.

South will now look to keep their foot on the accelerator and reel in Mowbray's total with Jackson after another six hours of hard work and consistency.

Launceston have the bye.

Westbury, on 87.3 points, led the table in the lead up to the round followed by Riverside 63.9, South Launceston 61.5, Launceston 59.4 and Mowbray 35.7.