New South Wales beat Tasmania to secure four-peat at National Indigenous Cricket Championships

Callan Morse Published March 1, 2023 at 8.30am (AWST)

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New South Wales celebrate their fourth consecutive men's National Indigenous Cricket Championships title. Image: Chris Hyde.

New South Wales has capped an undefeated tournament by winning a fourth consecutive men's National Indigenous Cricket Championships Final, defeating Tasmania by 48 runs under lights at Traeger Park.

The win creates a tournament first, with the New South Wales side becoming the only men's state team in both National Indigenous Cricket Championships and Imparja Cup history to win four tournaments in a row.

New South Wales (9-135) defeated Tasmania (10-87) by 48 runs

After being asked to bat by Tasmanian captain Aaron Tuxworth, New South Wales posted a competitive total of 9-135 with captain Tyran Liddiard top scoring for the defending champions.

The left hander struck six boundaries in his 22-ball 35, finding support through middle order batter Kobe Ross (28 from 29).

Contributions also came from the bat of opener Pat Rosser (13 from 14), Jack Hartigan (15 from 20) and Brett Russell (11 from 9) to see New South Wales set Tasmania 136 for victory.

Richards and Liddiard celebrate the wicket of Tasmania's Brayden Devries. Image: Chris Hyde.

Tasmanian off-spinner Brandon King (3-13 from four) was the standout bowler for Tasmania, dismissing New South Wales' key batters in Liddiard, Rosser and Brynley Richards (2 from 8), with quick Brandon Kopper (3-22 from four) picking up three late-innings wickets.

Tasmania's innings started with fragility after losing Brayden Devries (1 from 2) on the fifth ball of the chase, the opener clean bowled after attempting to ramp New South Wales opener Brynley Richards (2-17 from three).

Richards then went on to dismiss opener Josh Barry (10 from 9) and after Keaton Blattner (3-13 from three) bowled Brandon King (8 from 5) on the opening ball of his spell, Tasmania were left reeling at 3-25.

Tasmania's middle order were unable to recover with three single-figure scores before innings top scorer Rhys French (27 from 28), attempted to resurrect Tasmania's innings.

Coming to the crease with the score at 5-36, French put on 46 with support from partners J Goodsell (7 from 15) and Eli Bellinger (6 from 16).

However Tasmania's hopes were dashed after he was bowled by Jack McDonald (1-11 from three) partway through the 17th over, with Tasmania bowled out on the final ball of the 18th over.

Allrounder Rhys French (27 from 28) top scored for Tasmania. Image: Chris Hyde.

Following the match, Player of the Match Tyran Liddiard said the win was emotionally charged for the New South Wales side, paying tribute to his late grandfather who recently passed away.

"Today was quite an emotional day for myself and boys," Liddiard said.

"We had a meeting and spoke about as a team what it meant to us and for me and my family at the moment.

"My pop just passed away and you know, lots of bad things happening.

"So for me, I was able to let that all out and tell the boys what it meant to me as everyone else did, and I think that helped us today."

New South Wales players celebrate their fourth straight National Indigenous Cricket Championships title. Image: Chris Hyde.

The New South Wales captain said the pre-match conversation gave his side strength, contributing to the win.

"We were all out there and we all had a bit of extra because we were playing for something," he said.

"And that's something was our family, our mob, people back home that are watching."

The record four-peat confirms New South Wales' recent dominance of the tournament's men's division, winning in 2018, 2019 and 2020 before the tournament took a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

New South Wales have now won nine National Indigenous Cricket Championships and Imparja Cup titles.