The Lennox Head cricket team chased down the 222 runs scored by Murwillumbah playing at home on Rabjones Oval on a very hot Saturday last week to take the points in the far north Coastal League.
‘It was great to chase a big total. To win with just two balls to go was even better,’ Lennox Head captain Justin Hooper said.
When the players took to the field at 12.30pm the mercury had already risen to 38 degrees.
‘It was very taxing on the bowlers, so there were a lot of short spells and plenty of changes,’ Justine said.
Lennox won the toss and put Murwillumbah into bat who reached 7/222 of their allotted 40 overs.
P Dhillon was the mainstay of the innings with 62 runs, supported by the top three batsmen as A Houssen scored 22, C Strong 31 and JL Mitchell got 24.
Lennox was able to get off to a good start and the innings was consolidated by the captain’s top score of 77 not out.
‘I was able to hit the ball around as the bigger hitters came in from the middle order, and just played a supporting role,’ he said.
Despite losing early wickets Lennox kept the run rate up and stayed in the game.
For the last 20 overs the team managed to score eight runs an over to keep in touch.
‘To get a win under the conditions was a great result due to the renewed and refreshed batting lineup that included some new players as well as people returning from injury’, he said.
The result was a far cry from the first game back from the Christmas break played the week before when Lennox lost to Byron Bay.
Lennox chose to bat on the Byron Bay Memorial Recreation ground but couldn’t take advantage of winning the toss, scoring 114 runs.
The last seven batsmen contributed a total of 27 runs.
Byron chased down the total with four overs to spare. George Worthington top scored with 38 not out.
‘It was our worst game of the season,’ Justin said. ‘We couldn’t get bat on ball’.
The team now has everything to do to stay in the race for the finals as they play the competition’s top sides over the coming weeks.
‘If we don’t win the next couple we are out of the running,’ Justin said.
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