Bega-Angledale finished just 13 runs shy of Eden on Saturday, finishing on 213.
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The home Eden club had a disastrous start when opener Drew Mudaliar was marched for a duck, but quickly fired back through Andrew Evelyn and Patrick Kearney.
The pair both made half-centuries as Eden batted out their 40 overs, finishing on four for 220.
Bega-Angleldale put the hosts under plenty of pressure, but just ran out of puff late, batting out the innings on nine for 213.
Cody put us right in the game ... it got us right to the brink of winning
- Rob Stevenson
The Eden roster were on 101 when Evelyn was finally dismissed for 58 by a Rob Stevenson catch at wicket-keeper as Cody Hazelgrove-Danvers added impact to the bowling roster.
Later, Kearney also fell to Hazelgrove’s bowling as Stevenson was able to stump the young gun.
Later, Hazelgrove-Danvers put the Bega-Angledale outfit right back in contention with a nearly 80-run haul off a terrific middle-order stand.
Stevenson said Cody had “put us right in the game, with an aggressive and hard-hitting stand.”
“It got us right to the brink of winning,” Stevenson said. “With Richard Arbon adding 40 and a few of us getting into the 20s, we only needed about 30 off the last five overs.”
“The balance was in our favour, but we stumbled a bit in the last few overs.”
Stevenson praised Hazelgrove-Danvers and Evan Gray for their medium pace and leg-spin bowling respectively.
“We had done well to get ourselves in the game they had bowled some really good economical overs,” he said.
But the Bulls had let off the pressure in their fielding innings and Eden capitalised late in the piece with Toby Timms finishing 43 not out and Matt Creswick claiming 29 runs not-out at the death to seal their strong total.
“Those last five overs were really the difference, they got about 50 which was more than the difference in the game.”
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It boiled down to a few dropped catches, which had hurt the Bulls, but Stevenson said it was good for the club to be able to match a competition stronghold like Eden and the round provided “a good learning curve for some of the young guys”.
Both Hazelgrove-Danvers and captain Braiden McIntosh had claimed two wickets apiece for the visitors.
Meanwhile, Kearney had taken a revenge of sorts for his stumping, claiming three wickets for just 18 runs for the Eden club.
Despite the loss, the Bulls are now keenly looking forward to a derby clash with the Tathra Sea Eagles.