It was a slow, agonising death for Western Suburbs’ batsmen on Saturday as Kurri-Weston medium pacer Alex Seamer dominated with the ball at Coronation Oval.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On a wicket playing a little low and slow, Seamer was the standout, taking 5-37 from 23 miserly overs that included 13 maidens.
Chasing a total of 235, Wests came up well short, dismissed for 140 off 66 overs.
Wests skipper Tom Irwin played a lone hand, scoring a patient 59 – the only Wests batsman to pass 20.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to give credit to the opposition, and they were too good,” Irwin said.
“From what I’ve seen Kurri are going to be a real force this season. I’d put them in the top two, that’s how impressed I was.”
Irwin was reluctant to criticise his own players, saying they put a high price on their wickets.
“We batted 66 overs so we faced a lot of balls,” he said. “It’s not as if we were playing rash strokes.
“But they built pressure really well with in-out fields and their bowlers were bowling at the top of off stump. They were very hard to get away and the pressure built.
“At one stage there we faced five or six maidens overs in a row. And at the same time Alex Seamer bowled unchanged for two hours … maybe 16 or 17 overs in succession.
“The bowlers at the other end gave him good support, so it was a top team effort from them.”
Opener Justin Lantry (16), Damien Trappel (11) and Riley Harrison (18) were the only other batsmen to reach double figures.
While Seamer was weaving his own sort of magic at one end, left armer Jack Sylvester gave sterling support with 2-31 from 15 overs, while Isaac Barry grabbed 2-43 from 13 overs and Sam Dalibozek 1-14 from seven overs.
In other matches Norths picked up outright points against Easts at East Maitland Park with three balls to spare.
And Wests also picked up major points against newly promoted Port Stephens. After scoring a healthy 6-303 last weekend, City’s bowlers did the job nicely on Saturday, holding Port to 114 and 90.