A win by the Cobar Cowboys representative cricket team against Gilgandra in the Brewery Shield competition on Sunday has secured the Cobar side a semi final berth.
In the match played at Gilgandra on Sunday, the home side won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first.
Gilgandra’s innings was dominated by their top order batsman, Nick Willoughby, who top-scored with 37 runs from 77 balls.
Apart from a few flashes of resistance, the team however failed to build partnerships and Gilgandra was dismissed for just 93 runs in 32.2 overs.
Cobar’s bowlers were excellent throughout, with siblings Jake Harbison and Nicola Harbison taking the bulk of the wickets with Jake finishing with 4/25 and Nicola took 5/9.
The Harbisons were devastating with the ball and reduced Gilgandra to their modest total of 93, with their tight, disciplined bowling and consistent breakthroughs.
Cobar’s other bowlers were also excellent and maintained high quality bowling.
In reply, Cobar had a tricky run chase ahead of them, and a failure of the top order saw Cobar slump to 5/15.
Tristan Everett then joined Jayden Potts at the crease and the pair managed to turn the momentum for Cobar before Everett was also dismissed.
This brought Mark Fraser to the crease and he and Potts both showed positive intent putting the pressure back onto the Gilgandra bowlers.
The pair got the score to 68 before Fraser was dismissed for 15.
Potts was finally dismissed for a gritty 31 runs leaving Cobar still needing 11 runs to take the win.
The Cobar side managed to scrape over the line reaching 94 in 36 overs, with Anthony Mitchell and Ryan Urquhart putting on 11 runs for the last wicket in what was a brilliant display of controlled batting in a high pressure situation.
The win sees Cobar progress through to the semi finals in both the Brewery Shield competition and also the Country Plate series.
The semi final of the Country Plate will be played against Mudgee next month.
The Brewery Shield competition semi final is expected to be held at home against Bourke with the date of that match yet to be announced.—contributed
