ATHERTON ROMPS TO 40OVER TITLE
ATHERTON have their sights set on a clean sweep of the Cricket Far North 2019/20 season after claiming the one-day title at Loder Park yesterday.
The Tablelanders had to fight back after being 3-12 early in their run chase to defeat Rovers by five wickets and secure the second of a possible three first-grade trophies.
Skipper Tommy Boorman was extremely proud of his players and said the victory was a reward for all their hard work.
“It was a massive win,” he said. “It’s unbelievable for us, for Atherton, the home crowd here, it was a great day and it’s been a great year for us.”
Rovers defeated Barron in Saturday’s semi-final at Griffiths Park to advance to yesterday’s grand final against Atherton, where they won the toss and elected to bat.
Rovers scratched their way to 122 off 39.2 overs, Tom Lever topscoring with a crucial 29 batting at No.6.
In his third A-grade game, Finn Churchward was Rovers’ next best with 22.
For Atherton, it was Daniel Parnell and Dylan Pettingill who did the damage with ball in hand, with figures of 4-29 and 3-16, respectively.
Atherton’s run chase got off to a shaky start, with Rovers taking the scalps of Parnell, Chris Adams and Mason Blakey for just 12 runs, before Paul Nasser and Fred Pittorino steadied the ship.
Pittorino hit three fours and a six for an almost run-a-ball 22, while Nasser continued his career-best form, unloading at the crease for 72no, including nine fours and a six, to see Atherton reach 5/123 in 30.4 overs for victory.
Nasser said he was still feeling confident striding out to the middle with his side reeling at 3-12.
“We bat pretty deep so I still thought we could tick it along,” he said.
“I tried to get as many as I could before 20 (overs) and just make it easy for the tail.
“It was a pretty flat deck, so we got the job done.”
Boorman couldn’t praise the young tonker enough.
“All this year, he’s led from the front for us,” he said.
“To say he’s 21 – he’s our senior batter through and through. He was unbelievable today.”
Atherton will look to complete a clean sweep of the twoday, one-day and Twenty20 trophies, as they did in 2017/18, by claiming the Twenty20 title as the season wraps up this month.
“There’s nothing to say we can’t win all three,” Boorman said.