Rovers’ deliveries send Norths south
CHRISTMAS has come early for Rovers after the most destructive 14 balls of the season condemned Norths to a gamechanging collapse at Endeavour Park.
After Chris Stanger belted 86 off 78 balls, the visitors were sitting pretty at 4-181 before Rovers paceman Tom Lindenmayer captured 4-6 to have their opponents all out for 189.
It could be crucial not only in the context of the match, but the 2017-18 season, with the two teams currently squabbling over a top-three spot.
Norths captain Angus Warnock labelled the collapse on the flat track a “cardinal sin”.
“The boys, I guess, didn’t read the situation very well and sort of got a bit carried away with the short boundaries and thought they could hit everything out of the ground,” he said.
“We were on track for something around 300 and ended up falling a lot short of that, all out for 189 with an hour to go, which is a cardinal sin really.
“It’s pretty much a mustwin for us to keep our head in the top group so it’s very frustrating.”
Lindenmayer struck with his first ball when Nathan Coe skied a line-and-length ball and said he kept it pretty simple in tandem with skipper Tom Lever, who removed Lachlan Naess an over earlier.
“When I came on to bowl I was really looking to do something and take a couple of wickets,” Lindenmayer said.
“I was just trying to hit the top of off every time. The first ball showed if I just hit that spot, they were going to give us catches.
“I know that’s my spot in the team, to come on when I need to come on and dry some runs up.
“That’s what Tom (Lever) was hoping for me to do at the start, to dry it up, and that’s when the wickets would come.”
Lever said Lindenmayer’s consistency solved Rovers’ headache of giving up cheap runs.
“The end he bowled from was just constantly going for runs, so he just came on and bowled really good areas and genuine wickets, nicks and things like that, so it was good,” Lever said.
“It was looking pretty dire at times. Stanger was just shooting from the hip and smoking everything.”
Rovers ended the day 1-48 but Lever said there was still “heaps of work to do” to win.
At Griffiths Park, the match between Barron and United is poised to go either way.
Barron fell over for 116 but had their rivals 6-66 at stumps, with former teammate Mick Raso the only recognised batsman standing in their way.
IT WAS LOOKING PRETTY DIRE AT TIMES. STANGER WAS JUST SHOOTING FROM THE HIP AND SMOKING EVERYTHING
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