The Northern Territory under-17 cricketers were left to contemplate some missed opportunities in a 97-run loss to the powerful NSW Metro side on day one of the national championships in Ballarat.
The Junior Strike bowled and fielded well to restrict the Blues to 9-239 after the compulsory 50 overs, but faltered in their run chase against some accurate bowling from the Sydneysiders.
A total of 142 after reaching 3-72 with plenty of overs in hand has prompted coach Tony Judd to work on shot selection and keeping the scoreboard ticking over when his batters resume their work against long-time rivals South Australia on Friday.
"While we bowled well, we didn't compete as well as we would have liked with the bat, up until the first 10 overs of our innings we were thereabouts but it dropped away after that,'' he said.
"We couldn't get the strike rate required (4-8 runs an over) and lost wickets quickly as a result.''
Judd found several positives in the bowling of Waratah medium pacer Mithuru Perera, Southern Districts quick Matthew St Clair and Palmerston leg-spinner Rehaan Sundar.
That trio reduced the powerful NSW batting lineup to 5-119 after the Blues won the toss and batted.
Tall wicketkeeper Cadell McMahon was involved in four of those dismissals, including catching opener Hayden McCarthy off a Perera outside edge and completing a spectacular one-handed catch to send No.3 bat Will Adlam on his way from the spin of Sundar.
Smart stumpings of aggressive pair Alexander Lee-Young and John James were other highlights for the Palmerston gloveman, who also snared a neat catch low down to his right when St Clair found the edge of Blues middle order bat Nitesh Samuel.
There were some good signs from the batting lineup, including a determined 45 from 94 balls by Nicholas Fleming, the Nightcliff cricketer hitting three boundaries before he was the sixth man out when clever leg-spinner Hayden McCarthy bowled him in search of runs.
McCarthy's first three wickets only cost him two runs from five miserly overs in an example of what the Territory batters need to do by working singles and twos to try and knock him off a length.
Judd said the batters were aware of what they had to do against quality interstate bowlers.
"We've spent quite a lot of time working on those things and that's why it's disappointing,'' he said.
"The NSW bowling side was pretty good to be fair, but we could have done a lot more with it, something we'll be addressing overnight and first thing in the morning.''
NSW Metro 9-239 (A Lee-Young 53, A Boreddy 49no, B Noorbergen 31, M Perera 4-44, R Shyamsundar 3-45, M St Clair 2-20) d Northern Territory 142 (N Fleming 45, A McCormick 20, B Robertson 16, MS Kahlon 4-38, H McCarthy 3-13) by 97 runs.