Northern Territory has played its final match at the U17 National Championships in Launceston, falling short in their run chase against Tasmania.
Played at the NTCA No. 2 oval, NT won the toss and elected to bowl first with immediate success – Southern Districts Matt St Clair (2/29) and Neel Patel (1/13) followed up their brilliant opening spells from yesterday to restrict Tasmania to 2/28.
Tracy Village’s Tye Beer (3/33) and Reehan Shyamsundar (3/13) then made significant inroads on a pitch which offered a surprising amount of turn and bounce – both claiming three wickets and bowling with great consistency.
At 9/79, a late fightback from Tasmania’s Hayden Clark-Sullivan (14) and Bailey Shead (11*) brought the final total to 107; Waratah’s Mithuru Perera (1/12) was the other wicket taker, while Palmerston’s Cadell McMahon continued his excellent tournament with the gloves, finishing with two stumpings and a catch.
In response, NT got off to a great start with McMahon (20) and Alice Springs Sam Rumpff (8) reaching 29 for no loss. From there things went south, as Tasmania turned to the spin of Hayden Clark-Sullivan (5/10) and Jericoh Dickins (2/7) who ripped apart NT’s top and middle order.
Patel (10) and Tracy Village’s Dhruv Shandilya (12) offered some resistance, while Noah McDonald tried to outlast the spin (2* off 27), but a collapse of 9/36 saw the NT bowled out for 75.
Head Coach Greg Turner reflected on the performance and National Championships:
“Today hurt the team a lot, knowing how well we bowled and our strong start with the bat, to not walk away with the victory”.
“My message to the players is to reflect on their learnings from the Nationals and use that to improve their games moving forward. A core group of these players are still eligible for next year’s Under 17’s, so they will be better for the experience”.
“Overall, I am proud of the efforts of the group and all they have put into the National Championships over the last few months”.