With ACC defending a small target, taking early wickets was crucial. The captain delivered almost immediately, bowling one of Newtown's opening batsmen for one: 1/1. Ray provided another needed spark with a sizzling piece of fielding - running towards the ball, picking it up and throwing it in the one motion, executing a direct hit run out from mid wicket, leading to his wild celebration to make the score: 2/15. And when Kristian captured his first wicket, bowling out the hapless batsman and suddenly it was: 3/17. Game on! Just when Newtown seemed to be spiralling towards another defeat, their two best batsmen in Northard and Thompson started putting together a solid partnership. Thompson attacked ACC's bowlers with a selection of wild shots and Northard did similiar. When Northard popped up a ball high in the air, Ray turned and chased after it, getting in position and waiting for the ball to return from the heavens.. only to turn from hero to villian by uncharacteristically dropping the catch. Heads went down as the Newtown partnership continued to flourish as they headed towards the target. Norm decided to give Ray a chance to make amends by giving him a turn to bowl. After plugging away for a few overs, Ray finally exacted some revenge on Northard by having him caught in the deep by Jack: 4/91. Ray provided again having Thompson bowled to make the score: 5/112, but it seemed too little too late. Nevertheless, when Jeremy performed another direct hit run out: 6/113 and Kristian bowled another batsman out soon after: 7/114, the match was turning into a thriller! Newtown only had ten players available to bat meaning ACC only needed to take nine wickets instead of the usual ten. It was left to Kristian and Ray to try and steal victory from Newtown. They each caused the batsmen to scrap for every run as both sides' anxiety levels rose by the minute. Yet another wicket fell with Jeremy taking a catch off the bowling of Kristian: 8/120. The stage was set, with the light fading like Norm predicted earlier, Newtown needed six runs and ACC needed one precious wicket. Tensions soared when one of Newtown's tail-enders hit a four to have Newtown ever so close. And when a single was taken from Kristian, the scores were tied. In the end, Newtown somehow came up with the one more required run to earn their first victory of the season. ACC only had themselves to blame, failing to take advantage of the extra player they had and now head into the bye round on the back of two consecutive losses.

Round 1 vs Cavaliers