Saturday’s representative match between Broken Hill and Red Cliffs at Alma Oval finished almost as quickly as it started as the home side put away their opposition for an eight-wicket win.
The visitors won the toss and elected to bat, with the openers peppering away at each delivery being bowled to them. The breakthrough for the first wicket would come in the fifth over when Callum Rosewarn (2/6) bowled Red Cliffs vice-captain Jason Cullinan.
The next over saw two wickets fall in three balls – Austin Wilson (1/6) bowling Red Cliffs captain Seth Lanigan, and John Mensforth being run out – as the away side looked to regroup. They wouldn’t as Callum Rosewarn would get another wicket before his spell was over.
Codie Howard (2/2), Kade Ticehurst (2/7), and Scott Mateer (2/11) to wrap up the middle order and tail of the batting lineup that saw Red Cliffs post a total of 55 where only two batters made double figures, with Nicholas Vine top-scoring with 12 runs off 28 deliveries.
Broken Hill’s start was less than ideal when vice-captain Mackenzie Attard was dismissed for a golden duck. A quickfire 38-run partnership between captain Tobias Hack (21 off 14 including three fours and a six) and first drop Ben Jurd saw Broken Hill 2/38 inside four overs once Tobias Hack departed.
Ben Jurd (29* off 14 including five fours and a six) and Paddric Attard (6*) scored the remaining runs needed for victory in a 19-run partnership, with Broken Hill requiring just over six overs to get the job done in the end.
“Obviously a really, really good result for Broken Hill,” Tobias Hack told the Barrier Truth.
“[It] probably just shows the class of cricketers that there are in Broken Hill. But in saying that it’s still a rep game and it’s always going to be a tough competition, but it shows you the calibre of players in Broken Hill.
“Our big thing before the game was to try and keep the pressure up as much as we could and keep the talk up as well because when everyone’s talking, having fun in the field, it really shows. Obviously, they got bowled out for 55, but they did probably get away from us a little bit.
“It was well set up by Callum Rosewarn and Austin Wilson early taking three wickets between them for only 12 runs, so that was good to get some early wickets. Then with Codie Howard, Kade Ticehurst, and Scott Mateer to run through the tail, I thought that was top-class cricket.
“Chasing a lower total, especially with the side that we had, there was no massive pressure, thinking that if you do get out early, there’s plenty of other batters behind you.
“It was a big thing we pushed during the week was that we’re going to be aggressive no matter what, whether we’re batting first or bowling first. I think we really wanted to post a big total or restrict them as best as we could.”
With the ledger at 2-1 now in favour of Broken Hill since the representative match between Red Cliffs began in 2021, Tobias says it feels like there’s a built-up rivalry now that three iterations of the game have been played.
“[There’s] a little bit of rivalry now, which is nice and sort of keeps that flame going – you don’t want that to die out, because if we’re not playing rep cricket, you’re playing the same three teams once a month.
“Hopefully we can go down [next year] and win because no team’s won away from home yet so hopefully, we can break that streak.”
PICTURE: STUART KAVANAGH
