After an inauspicious start to their campaign, Central North fell just a couple of overs short of finishing their northern pool Country Championship carnival with two wins.
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It was looking like it might be a long weekend when they were humbled by Newcastle on the opening day.
But the Tom Groth-led side bounced back to beat hosts Central Coast by 31 runs on Saturday.
They then pushed North Coastal all the way on Sunday, the coastal side just getting home on the bats of a couple of NSW Country players.
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Caleb Ziebell was unbeaten on 102 and Pat Rosser 66, the latter smacking five fours and three sixes to turn the game back in North Coastal's favour after Central North had pegged them back from a flyer as they defended 9-278.
"We just couldn't find a way to get a wicket, we tried a few different things," Groth said, North Coastal passing the runs with 2.1 overs and six wickets in hand.
Michael Rees, Todd Francis and Callum Henry earlier all notched half-centuries in what was Central North's best batting performance of the carnival.
"It was good, we thought that was a good enough score to win," Groth said.
"At the start of the day we said we wanted to bat the 50 overs and we knew if we did that we'd get a good score."
Henry was only a late inclusion and finished unbeaten on 50.
"It was good to see Cal get some runs, step up, he played really well today, very happy with his performance," Groth said.
Rees' top-scored with 58 while Francis, in his first Central North opens campaign, made 57.
Simon Norvill (58) and Callum Gabriel (52) had on Saturday guided Central North to 8-228, coach Tom O'Neill then leading the charge with 4-35 as they bowled Central Coast out for 197.
On Friday, after bowling well to dismiss Newcastle for 239 they faltered with the bat managing only 119.
"Friday was really disappointing," Groth said.
"To lose the first game and go down the way we did was very disappointing."
Across the three days they had their moments, but they "just couldn't quite string the complete performance together" aside from probably Saturday.
"We batted well day two and three and bowled well day one and two," Groth said.
He said it was a good hit-out for some of the younger players and couldn't fault anyone's effort.Rees was their best