Campbelltown Camden will need an almighty batting performance to beat Mosman.
With the victory target set to be 369 runs, the Ghosts will need all of their big guns firing when the round 14 match resumes at Allan Border Oval next Saturday morning.
You couldn’t call day one a disaster for the boys from Macarthur, but with premiership points worth their weight in gold it wasn’t far off that.
The Mosman club is not only out of contention for the 2017-18 finals they are almost at the bottom of the premiership ladder.
The Ghosts, who are leading the competition, would have been confident of getting at least six premiership points from this match.
But nobody told Mosman the script.
The visitors won the toss and invited the home side to bat first.
It turned out it was a big mistake.
By stumps Mosman had amassed 368 runs off 96 overs – and still had three wickets in hand.
Not surprisingly, the bowling figures for the Ghosts attack did not make for pretty reading.
Basically, they got smashed by the Mosman batters.
Nathan Baker took three wickets, but his 13 overs cost him 49 runs.
Luke Webb claimed one wicket for 86 runs off 26 overs, while Sam Skelly was also expensive, finishing with 1 for 75 off 15 overs.
Ghosts skipper Jarrad Burke’s 31 overs cost him 104 runs, although he did pick up both the Mosman openers.
However, by the time Burke struck Mosman had put on 119 for the opening wicket.
Ghosts picked up three more wickets to have the home side at 4 for 146.
But another big batting partnership of 133 for the fifth wicket snuffed any hopes of keeping the total below 300.
Still, if Phil Wells, Aaron Yabsley, Jarrad Burke and Ollie Pope lead the way with the bat next Saturday, the Ghosts can win.
It will be Englishman Ollie Pope’s last innings for the Ghosts before he returns home and his county side Surrey.
The Ghosts will be hoping it’s an innings to remember.
LOWER GRADES
2nd Grade: Mosman 10/212 Campbelltown Camden 3/100 B. Bourke 32*; V. Hreszczuk 30; I. Carlisle 3/376; J. Appleton 3/57;
3rd Grade: Campbelltown Camden 10/200 Mosman 0/7 C. Inger 77*; Y. Fair-Townsend 50;
4th Grade: Mosman 10/212 Campbelltown Camden 1/11 J. Campbell 4/24; A. Mishra 2/19;
5th Grade: Mosman 5dec 280 Campbelltown Camden 1/37 N. Brown 2/53; T. Mayer 2/65.
