Sport
1 November, 2021
Nail biting win for Atherton
ATHERTON 1st Grade bounced back from their last round thrashing to entertain the local crowd in a hard-fought Cricket Far North match against arch-rivals Rovers at Loder Park on Saturday.
Rovers elected to bat first and were put on notice early by some uncharacteristic medium pace bowling from Dan Parnell.
Dan kicked off his first over with a wicket maiden and followed up with another wicket in his second over, and the big scalp of the Rovers captain in his third over to have the visitors reeling at 3-17.
Rovers dug in for the next 20 overs before Dan struck again in the first over of his second spell to break an 87 run partnership.
Rovers went on to close their innings 9-195 with Tommy Boorman taking two wickets and Mason Blaney and Luke Parnell one apiece.
Atherton's opening batsmen suffered similar fates as Rovers, with Chris Adams, Dan Parnell and Paul Nasser all back in the sheds for 38.
Brendan Nasser answered the call to steady the ship, digging in for a valuable 53 and taking the score to 8-159, supported by Caleb Constant 16, Tommy Boorman 26 and Logan Poggioli 15.
The game was set up for a nail biting finish with Atherton needing 37 runs off 37 balls with one wicket in hand when Brendan departed.
Pete Sceresini and Mason Blaney took up the run-a-ball challenge as the game went down to the wire.
With the equation 9 off 12, Pete launched a six over square-leg and finished off running three to win the match with eight balls to spare.
Local cricket will take a break for Rep games this coming weekend, resuming with a match against Cassowary Coast at Miller Oval, Tully on 13 November.
RESULT: Atherton 8-196 (B Nasser 53, T Boorman 26, P Sceresini 23*, M Blaney 20*) Def. Rovers 9-195 (D Parnell 4-43, T Boorman 2-36, M Blaney 1-32, L Parnell 1-53)
