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Mudgee’s quest for President’s Cup glory has ended and their shot at the Western Premier League finals is over before it began following their second consecutive loss, this time to the Blue Mountains.
After being embarrassed by Bathurst on Saturday when the defending champions bowled them out for 40 in their 235-run victory, Mudgee were hopeful of bouncing back.
However, Blue Mountains produced a second strong performance in two days to secure a six-wicket victory over Mudgee on day two of the President’s Cup carnival on Sunday at Orange’s Jack Brabham (2).
The Cattle Dogs easily accounted for Orange on Saturday before chasing down Mudgee’s 220 to secure their place in the WPL finals, and put them in good stead to take out the President’s Cup.
“We’ve become a lot more professional over the past two seasons,” Blue Mountains skipper Andy Killion said.
“We work hard and it’s good to see the results coming. It was pretty tough out there [today], but chasing 220 is a massive plus for us.”
Making the win more impressive, Blue Mountains were forced to go without regular opening bowlers Chris Boothroyd and James Heath, both injured.
Mudgee skipper Jacob Edmonds won the toss and elected to bat, with James O’Brien and Steve Knight showing the form which has seen them represent Western Zone several times in recent years.
O’Brien batted the entire 50 overs, being dismissed on the last ball of the innings, for 92 while Knight battered 89 as the pair put on 167 for the second-wicket, leading their team to a defendable 220.
However, the mountain men made few mistakes in the chase, passing the total just four wickets down.
Alex Crowther led the charge, scoring 79 while Pat Hill added a valuable 43 and Sam Trankle remained 24 not out.
“We used to be a bit of a farce coming to these things, but it’s great to see the improvement,” Killion said.
“Young Alex did a wonderful job and Sam Trankle got red inks all weekend. More so with our bowling though, without out two best bowlers, the boys really stepped up and did the job.”
Edmonds struggled to find a reason behind the loss, and ended up landing on execution.
“I guess it’s not quite there,” he said.
“It certainly isn’t a mindset problem, we were upbeat and positive all the way through. We bowled too many wides and dropped a couple of catches, but I thought it was a pretty good performance really. Credit to the Mountains, they came here to play.”
Mudgee’s next match is against Orange Colts at Wade Park in the first round of the state-wide knockout Country Shield on Sunday.
In the other match, Bathurst made it two wins on the trot when they defeated Orange by 69 runs.