Bowlers dominate final two-dayer between City United and North Tamworth

But, as many fast bowlers know, the days when you find your rhythm and bowl at your peak often go unrewarded.

"We got some wickets from ordinary balls, and some of those ordinary balls were mine," McVey said with a chuckle.

"There's plenty of days where you bowl well and don't get any wickets. It all evens itself out."

The No. 1 Oval pitch on which McVey led the Tamworth City United bowling attack against North Tamworth did not initially look tailor-made for bowlers.

In fact, both captains wanted to bat upon first seeing the surface.

But it was Redbacks skipper Adam Greentree who won the toss, much to his counterpart Tait Jordan's relief.

"I think both sides were pretty keen to bat, I know I was," Jordan said.

"[Adam] won the toss and batted, so it looked hard. Decent bowling performances and both sides probably let themselves down with the stick a little bit."

Though it wasn't his fluent best, McVey was the pick of the bowlers with 4-34 in the first innings, while Jordan contributed three and Simon Bellamy cleaned up the tail with two of his own as North Tamworth were rolled for 85.

It was an ideal start to the first day of the final two-day round game of the season. And coming in, McVey and the rest of his City United teammates knew full-well their third-place ranking, and a potential spot in finals, was on the line.

"We knew it was elimination cricket when we turned up today," he said.

"We knew that taking early wickets would give us a bit of leeway. They did get a partnership going there, but we picked up wickets at crucial times."

At the end of the day, Greentree cut an exhausted figure. The Redbacks skipper bowled 19 overs straight, and picked up 3-23, after North Tamworth failed to stop City from snaring the first-innings points when they reached 6-86 on the last ball of the day.

While he was "disappointed" in his side's batting effort, Greentree believes they can come back next weekend and put a stamp on the game.

"Hopefully we can respond," he said.

"That's one thing I've said all year. We've had some mixed performances, but whenever we've had a bad one, we've generally responded really well."

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