Country Cricket Championships, Barossa

Some of the country’s best cricketers have descended on the Barossa since January 4, with teams from across the nation here to compete in the Australian Country Cricket Championships, hosted at a range of ovals across the region.

The Leader spoke with SA Outbacks Men’s Captain, and Tanunda player, Coby Cornish, at the innings break of the first match against the Victorian Country side at Angaston.

Even very early in the competition, Coby said the Outbacks were making headway in the match.

“We’ve got Victoria Country up first-up, they’re usually quite strong, so it’s a good opportunity for us to sort of put our mark on the competition,” Coby said on Friday.

He added that while the team didn’t have the strongest start, the first batting innings was turned around thanks to an “unbelievable” 95 runs not-out from Evan Gregoric, accompanied by a 30 not-out from Angus Glazbrook.

This left the SA side in a strong position, with 255 runs after the first innings.

It was certainly an impressive effort to start on, considering the whole team had only been playing as a unit a short time.

“Well as a side, our first training session was yesterday…so very fresh. A lot of us have never played together before,” Coby said.

“Thankfully there’s a few fellas that have backed up from last year and the year before, so there’s a bit of familiarity around the place, but a few new faces brings a bit of freshness to the squad and hopefully a few wins.”

The SA Outbacks went on to win the game against the Victoria Countrymen eight/214 at Angaston Oval, with matches for Men and Women’s teams continuing this week.