Showing no ill-effect from a busy two weeks at the Australian Country Championships, Nicoll put his team in the box seat against the ladder leaders on Saturday.

With the Colts sent in at McPherson Oval, Wagga City was quick to get on top as Nicoll fired with the ball.

The 29-year-old picked up five of the first six wickets to see the Colts stumble to 6-56.

Sam Whitfield proved the only real resistance.

He scored 73 before being the last man out as Kooringal Colts were dismissed for 125 in the 42^nd over.

In response, Wagga City finished the day at 3-82 with Nicoll (21) and captain Warren Clunes (0) still at the crease.

Clunes described the effort as his team’s best so far.

“It was much better than our first half of the year was,” Clunes said. “It was probably the best day of cricket we’ve played all season.”

He was particularly impressed with how the bowling attack improved after struggling through the first half of the season.

The new addition of Adam Newcombe opened the bowling alongside Nicoll and it paid dividends.

“It was pretty impressive,” Clunes said. “Obviously Jono taking five-fa was pretty good and I thought everyone bowled well.

“It was a good team effort and we actually held our catches which was probably the difference.”

Nicoll finished with 5-39 off 18 overs while Newcombe picked up two wickets and also took a spectacular one-handed catch at gully.

Wagga City still needs another 44 runs to pick up the first innings points, but the Cats have a chance to chase valueable second innings points.

Clunes believes they are well placed in the match and hopes to take advantage of the new points scoring system.

“I would have rather be a wicket less, it was disappointing to lose Maxy (Aaron Maxwell) with only a couple of overs to go,” he said.

“We still have me and Jon there and have a longer batter order this time than in our last few games so hopefully we can knock off those runs and put a big total on the board.”

However, the skipper isn’t sure how they will approach the second day of the clash.

“We normally play pretty attacking cricket so if we are no wickets down when we get pass the total we will probably try on put on a decent lead and maybe have a crack at them in the afternoon with the ball,” Clunes said.