A teenaged off-spinner destroyed Lavington’s aura of invincibility on Saturday.
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Playing just his third game, Rohan Smith ripped through the premiers’ top and middle order, taking the first six wickets to finish with 6-38 from his 10 allotted overs.
“He’s got a lot of tricks in the trade, we’ll just leave that there,” captain Ash Borella said, obviously trying to retain some secrets about his new match-winner.
Lavington’s Matt Tom and Daryl Tuffey combined in a 67-run opening stand, but once the latter fell for 37 runs from 39 balls, the visitors lost 10-124 to finish with 191 from just 41.2 overs.
“We left eight overs out in the middle, it definitely stings,” all-rounder Brett Davies said.
“When you play for ‘Lavi’, you expect to win really.
“We looked at the wicket and we thought 250 was par.”
Apart from the opening stand, Tom and Davies produced the only other partnership above 30, until the opener was run out while backing up at the non-striker’s end.
“It probably did swing the momentum back our way a little bit,” Borella said.
“Unfortunately it’s one of the unluckiest ways to get out.”
North peeled off the runs with an over to spare.
The home team’s top four all posted 20 or more, with New City recruit Callum Langlands (48) leading the charge, while Brendan Simmons (43), Borella (32) and Ben Paddle (20) also chipped in.
“Callum batted unreal,” Borella said.
“It’s good to finally get him across from New City, he just gives us that middle order batsman that we’ve been looking for for a few years now and with his leg spin, it’s a good addition to our side.
“A lot of his mates play here, we know him pretty well and he plays footy at North Albury.”
Langlands produced a patient knock from 81 balls, hitting just the three boundaries.
He spoke last season of trying to break into the best 15 players in the competition and while he didn’t achieve that with only 167 runs at 12.85, he certainly has that ability.
North fell to 5-149, but wily veteran Greg Daniel (20) and Tom Hemsley (18) guided the team home.
Lavington played North in last year’s grand final, with the Panthers claiming the title in the rain-affected match.
They boast an awesome pace bowling attack, but North’s performance will give the rest confidence.
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