City United off-spinner Scott Brennan has claimed career-best figures, against North Tamworth at No.1 Oval, but was left lamenting another City batting collapse.
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Brennan finished with 7-43 off 24.1 overs as Norths were dismissed for 117. City then finished day one 4-14.
Three players – openers Noah Pitt and Liam Rodgers and No.5 Tom Fitzgerald – got ducks. Fitzgerald, the scorer of 588 runs last season at an average of 53.5, has had three ducks in seven innings this season – and scored 113 runs at an average of 16.1.
Since winning five straight matches and topping the table, City have one once in four games (three T20s and one two-dayer). In that time, the highest score by one of their top-six batsmen from Saturday was Richard O'Halloran’s 29 in the first innings of the loss to South Tamworth last round.
On the eve of the Norths encounter, Brennan insisted that City’s confidence had not taken a hit. But after the latest batting collapse, he admitted that City’s batsmen were “lacking confidence”.
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Brennan, who had back-to-back duck leading in to this round, said: “We’ve got the bats there to do it [score big totals] – we just need to do it under pressure.
“And that’s the thing: we’re getting to the business end [of the season] and us boys just need to step up with the bat. It’s as simple as that.
“We can’t be doing this week in, week out, when the bowlers put in – which they have been. Like Tait [Jordan] and [Jack] McVey are bowling their hearts out each week. It’s not fair on them to try and back it up and get runs as well.”
Souths veteran Tom Groth was highly critical of the No.1 Oval wicket after the City game last round. And while Brennan said it was “probably the same” on Saturday – “a bit up and down” – that was no excuse for not scoring runs.
He said City youngster Callum Henry, who finished the day seven not out, “showed us how to bat”. “That’s the positive moving forward, if you can take anything out of it,” he said.
Brennan, who took 6-67 against West Tamworth in round six, has claimed a competition-leading 30 wickets this season at an average of 12.87.
He described his bowling performance on Saturday as a “great effort”. “It was a good pitch too. It had a bit of turn and a bit of bounce, which helped me out a lot.”
Brendan Rixon top-scored for Norths with 50.
