mmg.com.au

Rochester Tigers needed a lower-order fightback to give itself a chance of defeating Moama at Windridge Oval on Saturday.

The last three partnerships added 70 runs to take the Tigers’ total to 180, with the visitors 2/65 in their reply at the end of the first day’s play.

After winning the toss and batting, Daniel Major and Tim Maxfield opened for the Tigers but in-form Moama bowler James Scambler struck early to dismiss Maxfield for eight.

Adrian Tuddenham joined Major and only scored four runs before he was dismissed by Scambler, but the pair added 26 runs for the second wicket.

Brad Major then joined Daniel at the crease but the wickets kept flowing, with Ralph Siede capturing the opener for 32 — his highest score of the season and his team’s highest for the day.

Siede removed the dangerous Adam Ward quickly and, when Andrew Good (12) and Brad Major (27) were dismissed, the home team was struggling at 6/87.

Mitch Crawford (15), Grant Wachter (14) and Matt Stokes (28) pushed the score up to 9/142, before tail-enders Pat Ward (26) and Justin Cleary (11 not out) added 38 runs for the final wicket.

Siede finished with 4/42 for Moama, while fellow opening bowler Scambler took 3/38, with Kirk Teasdale (2/27) and Jack Harland (1/36) the other wicket-takers.

With 20 overs to face, Moama set about getting itself in a good position to push for first-innings points next week.

Brad Major and Adam Ward captured the wickets of Jimmy Alcorn and Graeme Mitchell, but opener Siede (37 not out) and Cam Parker (12 not out) remain unbeaten.

Moama captain Parker said he would have taken the 180 the Tigers finished with at the start of the day.

‘‘On what looked like a good batting deck, we had an unfortunate few boundaries but we picked up Maxfield early, which was good, caught well by Joel Murphy at mid-off,’’ he said.

‘‘Throughout the day they were scoring pretty fast, but we were still taking wickets which meant they had to review what they were doing at some time.

‘‘The last wicket got a little out of hand and we dropped two catches, but we have to look at the positives and to keep a top-four team in a two-dayer under 200 is a good effort.’’

The captain paid tribute to bowlers Scambler and Siede, who ‘‘both bowled really well’’.

‘‘The last three times Scambler has bowled he has been really good, bending his back and making it tough for their men to score,’’ Parker said.

‘‘And Siede took it on himself to bowl into the headwind and he just kept putting it in the right spots. He got the rewards for it in the end.’’

The positive start with the bat at the end of the day was also a positive, Parker said.

‘‘Any runs we got (Saturday) were just going to make next week easier,’’ he said.

‘‘It puts us in a much stronger position to get the job done.’’