On Saturday morning, Tait Jordan was far from his best.
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The Tamworth City United captain was in the latter stages of a flu which had left him feeling under the weather for the week prior.
But even that was not enough to stop him running roughshod at the end of the first day of a two-day game against Bective East at Riverside 1 on Saturday.
"I was pretty cranky when I bowled my first couple of overs, after the way we batted," Jordan said.
"That was a little bit of a rev-up for myself. It got me going, then I had a little breather."
Jordan's ire was understandable, as the reigning two-day premiers had folded for 86 after winning the toss and choosing to bat first.
It came as a surprise to his Bective counterpart, Jye Paterson, who admitted that he had also intended to bat first if the coin had fallen his way.
"Both teams though it was a good toss to win," Paterson said.
"They won and elected to bat, and I would have done the same thing. I was not expecting 20 wickets in the day, but both teams bowled really well and fielded really well."
The chief destroyer for Bective was Forbes Boydell, who Jordan said during the day "takes wickets for fun" against City United.
The tall pacer, not long removed from a seven-wicket haul against City last season, bowled well on a wicket which was seemingly tailor-made for him. It had bounce, nibbling seam movement, and he consistently landed the ball on a good length around off stump.
Cordell's 5-38 toppled the reigning premiers, along with 3-16 from Adam Jones, which Jordan said was down to complacency as much as it was Bective's bowling quality.
"It's a shame what we did with the bat," he said.
"I think it's a bit of a lesson that we were a bit cocky today, rather than confident, which is my usual motto."
But not long into the second innings, Bective also looked in danger of collapsing at 3-21 after two early wickets to Jordan.
It was only once the returning veteran, Jones (36), combined with Lachlan Barton (61) for a 70-run partnership that Bective claimed the upper hand.
Once Jones fell, It didn't take Jordan (5-29) long to run through the rest of Bective's lineup for 132 with help from Tom Fitzgerald (3-31) and Joey Mead (2-21)
"If we could have batted out the day, it would have been great," Paterson said.
"You'd take the first innings [win] and the lead, but there's still a lot of cricket next week. They'll come out, be attacking, and try to put the pressure on us."
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