North dethroned from Country Cricket
NORTH Queensland has been left to ponder what could have been after South Queensland claimed a 3- 0 sweep in the Queensland Country Cricket Championships at Riverway Stadium.
South Queensland won by four wickets in the opening Twenty20 match on Friday before clinching the title with a 28- run win in Saturday’s one- day clash as opener Kris Glass ( 103) scored a century.
North Queensland bounced back to restrict their southern rivals to 8- 177 in yesterday’s final 50- over match but they were dismissed for 172 in reply for another heartbreaking defeat.
The result breaks a six- year stranglehold for North Queensland and paceman Justin Dixon said a few lapses across the weekend had been their downfall.
“We were on top for most of the weekend but we lost 7- 30 two days in a row, which didn’t help. It just wasn’t our weekend,” he said.
Dixon, Brad Stout, and Josh De Munari were still rewarded with selection in the Queensland Brahmans team to contest the Australian Country Championships in Shepparton, Victoria in January.
Keeper- batsman De Munari will make his Brahmans debut while for Dixon it marks a nice change of fortune after a horror run with injury and illness, including a broken thumb during a warm- up match at last summer’s country championships.
“When I got real sick I didn’t know if I even would’ve been playing this season so I was pretty happy to make that ( Brahmans squad). It’s a bit of a change of fortune for the year,” Dixon said.