By Casey OÇonnor
Warwick Bulls have opened the Mitchell Shield representative season with a one wicket win over Toowoomba at Slade Oval on Sunday.
The Bulls were able to dismiss Toowoomba for 141.
The Warwick openers began well but were both back in the clubhouse with the score at 2/22 on the back of some good bowling by Mitch Darton and Alex Dwan.
Toowoomba lost a couple top order batters quite cheaply and in the middle order and when Cameron Moodie was caught by James Fern off a n Andrew Ryan delivery Toowoomba were 4/34 and looking for a steadying partnership. Jacob Fry joined Gavin Steger at the crease and the pair took the score to 5/60 before Fry (11) fell victim to a Joe Morris delivery which was caught by Chris Cantwell.
Toowoomba suffered a mini collapse losing three wickets for the addition of only three runs.
Chas Cheatley (31*) and Rahul Saresh (16) dug in and righted the ship before Suresh fell for 16. Last man in Marcus Frizell* proved to be a thorn in the Bull’s side and remained unbeaten on 24 at the close of the innings. Toowoomba 9/141 at the end of their 50 overs.
Chasing 142 to win did not look a difficult ask on paper but the pitch was very unpredictable.
The Bulls innings began slowly. The first to go was Andrew Ryan with the score on 19 Ryan only managing to add three to the total.
Although opener Morgan Bourke was solid, he lost a number of partners. Alarms bells began to sound when the dangerous John Cleary was out without troubling the scorer as was Joe Morris. A few balls later Morgan Bourke was runout for 25.
Things were looking grim with the score at 9/92. A sensational 50 run partnership between tailenders James Fern and Alex Dwan got the Bulls home in the 47th over in what was a sensational game.
Toowoomba innings: Fall of Wickets1-19 Matty Boyle, 2-22 Matthew Nunn, 3-24 Nick Budden, 4-34 Cameron Moodie, 5-60 Jacob Fry, 6-62 Gavin Steger, 7-63 Alex Perkins, 8-91 RAHUL SURESH, 9-101 Hayden Campbell
Best of the Bowlers were captain John Cleary 2/16; Mitch Darton 2/21; Andrew Ryan 2/31
Warwick innings: Best batting performances came from Morgan Bourke 14; Hayden Doherty 16’ Chris Cantwell 16; James Fern 19* and Alex Dwan 21* (*n/out)
1-14 Andrew Ryan, 2-35 Michael Bourke, 3-46 Mitchell Darton, 4-50 John Cleary, 5-53 Joe Morris, 6-55 Morgan Bourke, 7-84 Chris Cantwell, 8-85 Alex Strike, 9-92 Hayden Doherty.
Rahul Suresh was the best with the ball for Toowoomba taking 4/17 from his 10 overs.
