It was a vital toss to win but it was not to be for the Camden Campbelltown Ghosts first grade side on Saturday against Manly in their round four match.
The visitors – unsurprisingly – had no hesitation in batting first on a hard pitch and sunny conditions at Raby Oval.
Ghosts started well with Coyte removing the Manly opener in the first over, but that success was short lived when bowler Tom Rogers broke down in the second over and left the field for the day.
The Ghosts fought back to have Manly at 2/70 at lunch.
The after lunch session belonged to Manly who advanced to 2/157 shortly before tea.
The Ghosts bowlers kept toiling away nonetheless with Manly finishing the day at 6/325.
Browne (2/93) and Simmons (2/50) led the way for the Ghosts bowling attack.
Given the same conditions next Saturday the Ghosts batsmen will be confident of running down that score for victory.
Second grade batted first at Manly Oval and despite losing early wickets the partnerships kept the scoreboard moving to finish their innings at 231 runs with Tristan Muir (72) and Tyler Edwards (38) major contributors.
Ghosts are in a good position for next Saturday with Manly being 1/30 at close of play.
Third grade chose to bat first at Raby and struggled to build partnerships all through their innings with only Aaron Viles showing any resolve, finishing with 79 runs and the innings closing at 215 runs.
Manly are at 2/43 in reply, leaving the Ghosts bowlers with plenty of work to do next Saturday.
Fourth grade also batted first at Manly and after a good start being 4/132 mid innings continued to pile on the runs to finish the day at 9/274 with Mitch Taylor dominating the day with an undefeated 129.
The bowlers will be looking to gain points next week with an excellent score on the board.
Fifth grade had a day to forget at Raby 3, dismissed for just 102 runs.
Manly are already 3/80 in reply, setting up a hard toil next week for the Ghosts to take any points from the game.
On Sunday, the first grade side hosted the semi final of the T20 competition against Northern Districts.
Ghosts won the toss, batted first and compiled a competitive score of 157 runs with excellent scores from Ryan Gibson hitting 58 runs off 38 balls and Ben Bourke a rapid fire score of 28 runs off 12 balls. Northern Districts made a strong chase throughout their innings despite the best efforts from the Ghosts bowlers and scored the winning run with one ball to spare.
The Ghosts had a good campaign throughout this competition and the club is very proud of the young men who performed so well in such a demanding form of the game.
