WA suffer two first-up defeats at Australian Country Championships in Canberra

WA Country have endured a shaky start at the Australian Country Championships, dropping consecutive games to Australian Capital Territory and Queensland in the opening two rounds in Canberra.

WA were narrowly defeated by ACT in round one on Friday by a single wicket before dropping their second match to Queensland on Sunday by four wickets.

A terrific 98-run innings to former Albany resident Julian Crudeli helped WA post a strong total of 9-283 but ACT reached that total in stunning fashion with the last ball of the innings.

WA were sitting in a tight spot at 4-76 in the 19th over but the sibling duo of Julian and Nathan Crudeli showed their mettle with a sparkling 118-run partnership.

Julian Crudeli’s innings included 14 fours and one six while Mt Barker’s Nathan Crudeli added five fours and two sixes on his way to 49 runs.

Damien Burrage (46) and Bulls’ Jeremy Wood (21) also played a crucial part in the tail end as they posted a huge total batting first in the 50-over contest.

ACT begun their chase in worrying fashion after Nathan Crudeli took the wickets of Rhys Healy (9) and Joshua Staines (9) while Julian Crudeli also snared Jack Sanson’s wicket for two runs as they crumbled to 3-17.

However, a classy 104-run partnership between John Rogers (59) and Tyler Van Luin settled the ACT’s batting order.

Important contributions from Bradley Thomas (33), Ethan Fitzpatrick (38) and Blake Faunce (20) helped them get within touching distance of a famous win.

The ACT needed three runs to secure victory from the final ball and Tyler Hays delivered his side the win in style, whacking a four with the final ball of the game to secure victory as scores finished at 9-285.

Julian Crudeli (3-53) returned the best bowling figures of the contest while Nathan Crudeli also shined with 2-44.

In their round two clash with Queensland, WA failed to find any success with the bat despite Michael Noble adding 31 runs off 50 balls to help post 111 at the conclusion of the first innings.

Queensland reached that total in the 29th over to hand WA their second straight loss at the championships.

Cruize Ciallella did the damage for WA with the ball to take 3-17 while Julian Crudeli also snared 1-4.

WA recorded their first win of the competition after posting 7-222 in the first innings against South Australia with SA only managing 9-130 in reply.

Midway through Tuesday, WA Country were in the box seat for a second-straight win after scoring 7-368 in the first innings against Phillipines.