Riverina just miss out

Batting first, some late power hitting from Wagga’s Kai Watts helped his team finish its 40 overs at 8-103.

Watts struck 23 runs off 16 balls batting at nine but it wasn’t enough. Central Coast managed to chase down the total in the 37th over.

The team finished the event in Griffith with two wins and three losses.

Despite falling short in the final match, Riverina coach David Nichols was pleased with the team’s performance throughout the week.

“It has been really successful,” Nichols said.

“We’ve done pretty well I think with a couple of wins.

“It would have been nice if we had of won (on Thursday) we would have finished equal third and we are probably going to finish seventh now.

“That is a bit hard to take but the boys did well and they are a good bunch of kids.”

While Riverina finished with two wins, it was Illawarra that finished on top of the ladder with four wins.

Illawarra was gunning for a perfect competition with four wins from four starts heading to the final round on Thursday.

However, North Coastal had other plans and stunned the ladder leaders.

Reuben Moyle – who was North Coastal’s top run-scorer as well as the tournament’s second highest run-scorer – continued his good form with 43 from 56 balls.

Moyle fell to an on-song Nate Ruddock (2/26) before Jared Humphreys (26), Aidan Cahill (30) and Simon Pratt (20*) saw the score reach 6/174.

The key to North Coastal’s success in the match would be the wicket of Jayden Zahra-Smith. He had amassed 208 runs – a tournament-high – going into the match and hadn’t lost his wicket all tournament.

However, Pratt (3/9) showed he was up to the task when he removed the opener with the score on 33.

Three more Illawarra batsmen passed double figures but none were able to go on with the job as North Coastal registered a big win.

FINAL STANDINGS

1. Illawarra, 20

2. Southern/ACT, 19

3.  Central Northern, 17

4. North Coastal, 16

5. Western, 12

=6. Riverina, 10

=6. Central Coast, 10

8. Newcastle, 0