Northern Territory have begun their Cricket Australia U17 National Championship campaign in Brisbane with defeats against the ACT and Western Australia.
In the first match of the Championship, NT were sent into bat by ACT and immediately were under pressure, slumping to 5/22 after Ubaid Sohail (3/14) and Jeet Mehta (2/9) took early wickets with the new ball.
Some resistance from Tracy Village’s Tye Beer (18), Darwin’s Ralph Stephens (14) and Waratah’s Rithun Ramanan (10) was not enough as the NT side were dismissed for 73.
While the score was going to be hard to defend, NT showed some positive signs with the ball as Tye Beer (1/16) and Nirav Sharma (1/9) both took wickets, while Tracy Village’s Dhruv Shandilya contributed with a run out. ACT eventually chased down the target for the loss of 3 wickets.
Day Two saw NT put in a significantly improved display, with the Territory bowling first and restricting WA to 4/84 early in the first innings thanks to breakthroughs from Southern Districts Angad Panwar (3/51). A partnership from Matthew Lough (88) and Luca Boden (40) helped the WA side gain back momentum throughout the middle overs, before late wickets from Nightcliff’s Riley Suter (3/49) and Tye Beer (2/35) ended the innings on 9/271. Darwin’s Ralph Stephens was the standout in the field with 3 catches, while Palmerston’s Cadell McMahon took 2 catches behind the stumps.
After the innings break, PINT’s Noah McDonald (21), Nirav Sharma (26) and Shandilya (22) set about setting up the Territory’s run chase, but regular wickets around them saw the NT slip to 6/69.
Tye Beer (46) and Waratah’s Harvey McCormick (26) combined for an impressive 58-run partnership for the 7th wicket – showing their bright futures at just 15 years of age – which was followed by late contributions from Angad Panwar (18*) and Southern Districts Sam Barker (14*) as the NT ended their innings on 9/194.
The NT will return to action on Thursday and Friday with matches against NSW Country and Queensland.
You can follow the team on the Play Cricket App or through the Play Cricket Website.