THE Jimboomba Bushrangers division one team battled for a hard fought draw against Loganholme over the weekend.
Newly appointed captain Ben Nash lost the toss and Loganholme elected to bat first.
Loganholme made easy work of Jimboomba’s bowling attack with a 96-run first wicket partnership.
Young spinner Arden Coy (3-34) was the first bowler to claim a scalp with an easy catch to gully.
Coy’s bowling continued to devastate the Loganholme top order batsman with two more wickets falling in quick succession.
Spin bowler Jack Howlett (1-39) denied a Loganholme batsman of his century with a catch behind stumps.
Josh Graham (1-25), Tye Avery (1-24) and Brayden Hayes (1-25) also took wickets before Loganholme declared 7-297.
Jimboomba’s opening batsmen Ash Hughes (25) and Jack Howlett (6) failed to rival Loganholme’s opening batting partnership in the face of a tidy bowling attack.
Brayden Hayes was called out as the night watchman to join Phil Hayes in the middle.
Phil lost his wicket lbw on the second last over of day one, sending Tye Avery out to bad to finish the day’s play 3/78 from 31 overs.
Hayes (15) and Avery (3) lost their wickets early on day two.
Arden Coy (16 not out) and Harrison Russell (26) persisted for Jimboomba to bat out the 50 overs but were still well short of Loganholme with only 122 runs.
Loganholme enforced the follow on with 61 overs remaining.
Jimboomba’s prospects were not looking good with a batting collapse leaving the side with a miserable 6-66 after 15 overs.
Russell (66) and Mick Steinhardt (67) salvaged Jimboomba’s fortunes with an 84-run partnership before Russell was caught.
Hayes came to the crease with 30 overs left with the goal of batting out the end of the day for a draw.
Howlett joined Hayes for a long eighth wicket partnership.
The batting partners were successful with Hayes reaching his first half century for the season in the final over of the match.
Jimboomba finished day two 8-256 for the draw.