An inspired 46 from just 13 balls from Rikki Bovey has blasted the Bulldogs to victory in their dice cricket fixture against Riding Mill.
Riding Mill who were coming off two straight wins to star their virtual tour of Australia suffered were buoyant about their chances leading into the fixture with the Bulldogs.
After winning the toss and batting first, the visitors were in massive trouble soon after Jonny Bennett hit the opening ball of the match to the boundary. Rod Guy got the next delivery spot on finding the edge of Bennett’s bat with Will Morley taking a neat catch behind the stumps. On the final ball of the over Steve Kent, who had been moved up the order in the absence of Scott Dickson, also fell at the hands of Guy who decked one back into the top of off stump leaving the visitors reeling at 2-9.
Although the runs began to flow batters were coming and going with Raza knocked over by Wills for 8 off three and Aly Hall edging one to Morley off the bowling of Mann for 16 off 6. Soon after, Tim Cameron found the edge of Longstaff’s bat seeing him on his way back to the virtual pavilion after he had got off the mark with a towering six.
Bulldogs skipper bowled a very tidy over to put the breaks on the scoring with Joel Marks surviving a huge shout for LBW with the umpire believing Perry’s leg break was spinning too much for him to be able to adjudge him LBW.
Charlie Cull picked up the big wicket of Riding Mill skipper Liam James for 27 off 11 with Will Morley continuing his day out with the gloves taking a sharp catch down the legside. Mick Collins wasted no time getting going with a couple of sixes in his first three deliveries at the crease.
With Riding Mill at 6-93 after 6 overs, their run rate was tracking ok but wickets in hand was a concern. This was accentuated in the following over, Jack Carey claiming two wickets in the 7th over taking a sharp return catch to dismiss Marks for 14 off 7. This was followed by Carey getting hit for four and six by Mark Butcher but having the last laugh on the next delivery when Butcher was adjudged LBW for 10 leaving Riding Mill 8-108 and desperate to bat out their overs.
Brad McMillan had a huge shout for LBW turned down on the first ball of his over but managed to come away with the wicket of Greenwood when Gez Greenwood chopped one on after attempting a cut stroke.
The innings came to a premature close when Morley whipped the bails off in a flash to send Collins on his way for 23 off 7, leaving Potts not out on 8 and Riding Mill all out for an under par 126.
The intentions of the Wagga Wagga RSL Bulldogs was very clear with Rikki Bovey & Ethan Perry having a rapid fire 47 run opening stand. Remarkably, Perry had only faced one delivery when the first wicket fell with Bovey inflicting plenty of damage on the Riding Mill bowlers before Mick Collins sent his off stump cartwheeling out of the ground.
Things continued on nicely for the Bulldogs with Perry and Morley moving the score onto 73 before Longstaff trapped Morley in front for 14 off 8. Aly Hall managed to get a double breakthrough the following over with Perry who had been starved of the strike stumped by Greenwood for 13 off 7 and Carey coming and going out caught behind for six off two balls.
Although Raza managed to pick up the wicket of Cull for 9 the job was as good as done with captain Sam Perry coming in and blasting a towering 6 to get off the mark and Brad McMillan cruising to 32 not out including a delicate late cut for two to bring up the winning runs with 2.3 overs to spare.
There were a lot of potential candidates for player of the match with the judges awarding the official honour to Bulldogs opener Rikki Bovey for his destructive innings at the top of the order which set the tone for the run chase.
The tour continues this weekend with Riding Mill hoping to bounce back when they take on Kissing Point Cricket Club at virtual Auluba Oval in Sydney.
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