Tigers And Tahs Consolidate Early Winning Form

Nightcliff defeated Palmerston
Nightcliff opening pair Connor Carroll and Douwtjie Hoogenboezem have done it again, producing another top-notch first-wicket partnership to set-up the Tigers for victory.

Following a 157-run stand in the opening round, the Tigers import duo put on 96 runs on Saturday to lead their side to a 32-run win over Palmerston at home.

The strong contributions of Carroll (65 off 51) and Hoogenboezem (42 off 48) at the top of the order were supported by James Doherty’s 51 off 68 balls coming in at No.4 as the Tigers put up a strong total of 10-230. 

If it wasn’t for Palmy pace bowler Darshan Thakkar’s 4-44, including the dismissal of both openers, the Tigers could have posted a total closer to the 270 they notched in Round 1 against Darwin. 

Tigers captain Michael Kudra, who scored 17, was pleased with his side’s batting efforts.

“The two up top (Carroll and Hoogenboezem) are killing it, then James Doherty has been progressing the score and taking us to a defendable total,” he said.

In the run chase, Palmerston were eager to complete the task after falling 20 runs short in their opening-round loss to Waratah.

Caleb Montague (64 off 89) coming in as opener was amongst the runs again, alongside veteran No.4 Alex Bleakley (30 off 37) as Palmerston looked right on for victory at 2-113.

However, a collapse of 4-16 took Palmerston from 5-165 to 9-181, turned on by pace bowler Nicholas Fleming (4-36) who drew Bleakley into a false shot, caught by Carroll at long-off, which had the Tigers roaring. 

Hoogenboezem got the final wicket of Matthew Scoble (12) and it was all over, with the Tigers grabbing their second win of the season while Palmerston fell to 0-2 after suffering yet again another close defeat.

Kudra was pumped about the Top End homegrown talents delivering with the ball.

“The locals are getting the job done with the ball on low and slow wickets," he said.

Tigers leg spinner Charlie Smith grew his season wickets tally to six after taking 2-27 off 10 overs.

Darwin defeated Tracy Village
Darwin scored it's first win of the season after Mitch Jamieson (92 not out off 102) and skipper Dan Kerber (63 not out off 66) flexed their muscles to chase down Tracy Village’s total of 8-219 with 9.2 overs to spare at a good-looking Tracy Village Oval.

The Eagles were set a bigger score than they would have thought after Tracy captain Jack Doyle notched a handy 64 off 63 balls coming in at No.7 to grow his side’s total beyond 200.

But Eagles left-arm off-spinner Adi Dave (3-36 off 10) was able to get a hold of the captain when he bowled the good-old full toss which drew Doyle into a big shot, only to fall into the hands of Smit Raval who took a tidy catch at long-on.

In the run chase, alongside Jamieson and Kerber’s efforts, was former South Australia contracted batsman Jacob Dickman who struck a handy 56 off 59 while opening the batting.

The Darren Treumer-coached Eagles were two wickets down when they surpassed Tracy's total at 2-221.

Waratah defeated PINT
It was runs galore at Gardens Oval on Saturday as Waratah captain Jagadesh Koduru and teammate Shashank Lokesh both powered to centuries to send their total beyond 300 against PINT.

Koduru struck an unbeaten 135 off 132 balls featuring 11 fours and three sixes while Lokesh whacked five maximums and seven fours in his knock of 132 off 138.

The pair put on 253 runs in a sensational partnership that lasted more than 40 overs for the Warriors to set the Greens up for a tough chase of 4-314.

Koduru came to the crease at 1-13 before Lokesh joined him after Archie McCormick (16 runs) was dismissed at 2-23.

Leg spinner McCormick snared 3-47 with the ball in the second innings including a big caught-and-bowled to dismiss Greens skipper Farzan Chowna at 5-113 for a well-made 53.

An electrifying 94 not out off 69 balls from Greens No.6 Jonathan Caderamanpulle featuring five fours and sixes gave the visitors a sniff but in the end, wickets continued to fall at the other end, hurting their chances.

After 50 overs, the Greens finished on 9-256, 58 runs short of the Warriors total.

The Greens are now 1-1 while the Warriors remain undefeated alongside the Tigers in the DDCC competition.