Article written by Grey Morris (Darwin, NT) who is a former Sports Editor at News Corporation
A brilliant all-round performance has secured NT a second-consecutive (and third overall) victory at the 2024 National Under-19 Cricket titles in Adelaide.
The 28-run win guaranteed the NT a mid-table finish at this year's titles, one of their best results at a national level.
After winning the toss and batting, the NT U19 side posted 9-240 from their 50 overs, with a powerful innings (33 from 37 balls including 1x6) from U17 local talent Cadell McMahon setting the tone early. A trio of 40s from Jack Appleton (44), Advith Boreddy (43) and Hayden McCarthy (42) in the middle-lower order helped to finish off the innings.
Accurate bowling from Nick Fleming, James Hatton and Josh Malone set the tone early for NT - however wickets were hard to come by with the Tasmanian side reaching 1-96. Back-to-back run outs shifted the momentum in NT’s favour, and then attacking bowling from Archie McCormick (2 wickets) and Malone (3 wickets) ensured the Territory side consistently took wickets and remained in control of the match.
A third run out and wickets to Ryan Percival and Malay Doshi secured the victory, which was the NT’s second against Tasmania throughout the National Championships.
There were many highlights that pleased Head Coach Dylan Slater, including McCormick’s crucial wicket of contracted Tasmanian Aidan O’Connor (63), as well as a running caught and bowled by Ryan Percival to dismiss the dangerous Joseph McGann, who was threatening to take the game away from the Territorians with his 52 from 46 balls.
Slater highlighted the 28-run win had been a great way to finish a tournament:
"Everything we worked on during the other five games made it awesome to complete our planning in the last game," he said.
"Tassie batted very well, but to our boys' credit we pegged them back quite nicely by controlling what we could control and playing our best cricket to wrap up the tournament."
Slater said the side would have to wait to confirm their final position at the Championships, with two pools of five states and territories involved in the week-long championships.
NT v Tasmania _ Finals Round: NT 9-240 (J Appleton 44, A Boreddy 43, H McCarthy 42, C McMahon 33, J Malone 29, H Clark-Sullivan 4-45) d Tasmania 208 (A O'Connor 63, J McGann 52, A McCormick 2-39, J Malone 2-40) by 28 runs.
Click here for the full scorecard.