Hillgrove’s strength in the Armidale first grade competition was once again on display as they easily dismissed Barbarians on Saturday.
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The reigning premiers have only lost two wickets from their opening two matches when they have stepped up to bat with the bowlers restricting their opponents to low scores.
Max Laurie was scintillating again with the ball, taking 6-35 against the Baa Baas while Will Archer claimed two and a run out leaving their opponents with a total of 45.
Matt Baillie and Bentley Cropper made light work of the Barbarians’ total, chasing it down in less than eight overs.
Hillgrove captain Matt Schaefer put the wins down to the performance of the bowlers, highlighting Laurie’s 11 wickets from the two games.
“We are on a bit of a roll here at the moment,” he said.
“In the two wins we've had we have been pretty clinical with the ball which has been the key for us. He's bowling well, a lot of that though goes down to pressure built at the other end as well.
“Liam Howard bowled really well and then Will Archer came on and bowled really well as well. I think there was only 10 runs leaked at the other end so their batters were trying to score off Max and that brought about their wickets. He's going well with the wickets and he is winning us games and that's what we want.”
Schaefer said although the middle order batsmen haven’t had a chance to showcase their talents, they’ve got the capability to do the job when needed.
“The middle order for us is pretty bloody strong,” he said.
“We have the likes of Andrew Brownlie who hasn't had a bat yet, Brad King, Josh Croft, Dick Heagney, Liam Howard bats well. All of these guys have made big scores and have a heap of ability with the bat so while they haven't had a chance yet, we are all going to get a chance and when we get that we can take it.”