ULTIMA TUF confirmed their status as a genuine finals contender with a hard-fought 20-run win over last year’s grand finalists St Mary’s Tyntynder at the weekend.
The victory not only keeps the Roodogs Kookaburra Cup grand final hopes alive, but also puts them into the SHDCA top four ahead of a highly anticipated clash with ladder leaders Nyah District this Saturday.
A win against the Demons would not only move Ultima TUF further up the ladder, but also take them a step closer to breaking a 15-year finals drought.
Captain Kade Benfield was confident his team’s improvement would continue as the season progresses.
“I was stoked, that’s up there with one of the best wins I’ve been a part of to be honest,” Benfield said.
“We’re in the four now, but the two teams (Woorinen and Barham Koondrook) directly above us have played an extra game, so we feel we’re pretty close to the top teams.
“Finishing top four is the priority because we want to be premiers at the end of the season, but we know that if we win our next two games we’re right in the running for the Kookaburra Cup as well.
“To make that grand final would be something special for us, especially after the lack of success our club has had over the past 15 or so seasons, but we also know there is a lot of work to do before we can worry about either achievement.”
Benfield was a key factor in the result, top scoring with 42 off 29 balls in the middle order to help get his team to a defendable 7/154.
The Ultima TUF innings was a patient and steady build, scoring 53 runs from their first 20 overs as Jacob Hatcher (37 off 96 balls) and Riley Hender (23 off 66 balls) combined for a 68-run second-wicket partnership.
It was a polar opposite approach to that of St Mary’s Tyntynder, who burst out of the blocks with a Jake Foster (38 off 28 balls) and Austin Mckerrow (40 off 58 balls) 57-run opening partnership coming from just 54 balls.
“At the start of the day we felt that 130 would be a par score on that deck,” Benfield said.
“My ideal target would have been around 170, but that would have been with absolutely everything going right for us, but to get 150-plus was a good score on that deck I thought.
“We were missing a couple of our better bowlers as well, but our bowling attack really stepped up in their absence.
“Jake Foster’s a quality batsman and he went hard from ball one, they (Foster and Mckerrow) went really hard early and took to our pace bowlers, whereas our innings I felt we were in a really strong position at drinks with wickets in hand, which allowed us to really attack the second half of our innings.
“We always aim to keep wickets in hand and set ourselves a strong platform to launch from and in many aspects, it was a complete contrast to their innings.”
Benfield said the change in momentum came from his team’s ability to change the pace, with spinners Cassidy Sibley (4/27 off eight overs), Ian Schodde (2/8 off six overs) and Hender (2/14 off four overs) proving the difference between the two teams.
“I think our slow bowlers really stepped up, it wasn’t an easy deck to bat on and it kept low all day at both ends,” Benfield said.
“Cassidy Sibley was best on in my opinion, he took perhaps the four most important wickets of the day, but then ‘Schods’ (Ian Schodde) and ‘Chook’ (Riley Hender) they bowled unreal also.
“Our quicker bowlers were getting slapped around a little bit and taking a bit of pace off worked to our advantage.
“We had an extra spinner and Lachie (Edwards) bowled really well also and he’s a slow bowler essentially.”
Robin Sebastian (2/26 off seven overs) and Mckerrow (2/31 off seven overs) were the pick of the bowlers for St Mary’s Tyntynder.
Ultima TUF will host Nyah District at Alan Garden Reserve this weekend, while St Mary’s Tyntynder will play RSL in a must-win game for both clubs.
