Rain and spin bowlers were big winners on Day 3 of the national under-17 cricket championships being played in the Victorian city of Ballarat.
The Northern Territory's Round 3 fixture against the powerful Victorian Metro side was affected by Victoria's fickle weather, with three hours of play lost to rain and constant interruptions in the 50-over contest.
Victoria closed its innings at 2-119 after 24 overs when they won the toss and batted, leaving the Junior Strike with a total of 180 under Duckworth-Lewis wet weather rules to win their first match of the championships.
But they were unable to cope with a relentless Victorian bowling attack, collapsing to be all out for 69 after 20 overs from an opposition attack headed up by finger spin bowling.
Left armer Aryan Sharma (3-17) and right-arm off-spinner James Rosham (2-15) were the main destroyers as wickets fell on a regular basis.
In-form No.3 Nicholas Fleming was caught and bowled second ball for a duck on a day when tailender Matthew St Clair was the only batter to reach double figures, caught in the deep for 20 to be the last man out.
Coach Tony Judd put the loss down to "one of those days'' in cricket where wet weather and a shortened over format played into Victoria's hands.
"Not a great result, but it was a horrible day when we were on and off about seven times when we bowled then we were set something like 180 under the Duckworth-Lewis system,'' he said.
"We tried to have a bit of a crack up front, but for the rest of it we just lost cheap, easy wickets which was disappointing.''
Judd said the Territory had been "pretty sporting'' to allow the game to go on, but he insisted the players were at the championships to learn the game despite not playing as well as they would have liked.
The forecast of more rain has forced officials to cancel Monday's round of qualifying matches, meaning the Strike will play three consecutive games from Tuesday to Thursday.
NSW Country are Tuesday's opponents before playoff matches on Wednesday and Thursday.
Victorian Metro 2-119 (A Turner 51no, A Nadeem 34, B Robertson 1-5, A McCormick 1-27) d Northern Territory 69 (M St Clair 20, S Rumpff 9, A Sharma 3-17 J Rosham 2-15) 69 under Duckworth-Lewis System.