South Wagga bounced back to winning form with an impressive six-wicket victory over Lake Albert on Saturday.
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The Blues inflicted the reigning premiers their first loss of the season and made a statement at the same time with an emphatic victory at Rawlings Park.
After restricting Lake Albert to 6-99 from their 20 overs, South Wagga cruised to 4-104 with still four overs to spare.
South Wagga coach Joel Robinson led the way with both the bat and ball.
He took 2-12 from four overs before leading the run chase with the top score of 46.
While it is only early in the season, Robinson said it was an important win for the Blues.
“It gets us back on level pegging with them and they’ll be one of the major contenders I’d say.” Robinson said.
“We’ve still got to improve, we dropped a couple of half chances and probably lost a couple of wickets late that we shouldn’t of but it was a good effort.
“It was a big improvement on last week.”
Lake Albert struggled to get going with the bat.
Opening batsman Adam Newcombe top scored with 29 as he and Nic Skelly (15) put on a 47-run opening stand.
Skelly’s depature then sparked a mini-collapse as the Bulls lost 4-19.
Robinson and the experienced Terry Willis led the way with the ball. Willis opened and returned figures of 2-15 from four overs.
Robinson was happy with his team’s work in the field.
“Everyone bowled well,” he said.
“Terry Willis did well for us. He got two big scalps, getting Kurt (Robertson) and Alex Smeeth out.
“Everyone bowled well and fielded well.”
South Wagga lost Brayden Ambler (1) early in the run chase but that was the only hiccup.
Robinson, who was promoted to opener, hit eight boundaries in his innings of 46 and received good support from Blake Harper (22) and Alex Jones (16 not out).
Robinson said it was an important run chase after last week’s poor effort against Wagga City.
“We had to bat well,” he said.
“Obviously we didn’t get the job done with the bat last week so we needed to get it done this week and we did.
“We lost a couple of wickets late which we didn’t need to but we got the job done.”
The only concern in the win was a potential knee injury to bowler Adam Skow.
Lachie Skelly was the pick of the bowlers for Lake Albert, claiming 2-29 off four overs, taking the wickets of Harper and Luke Gerard.
Alex Smeeth was also lively with the ball and returned 1-7 from his three overs.
South Wagga now go into the double break with two wins and the one loss and sit equal second on the ladder.
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