Dan Poidevin and Joe Cooke – who captained the team – travelled to Illawarra on Friday. 

The Riverina took on ACT Southern that same day, Central Coast on Saturday, and Illawarra on Sunday. 

However, it was only in the match against Illawarra that everything clicked for the Riverina team. 

Against ACT Southern, they made a good start, batting first and finishing with 2/247 courtesy of a hundred from Brayden Ambler. 

However, it wasn’t enough, and a lower-order surge from the ACT took them over the line with more than three overs to spare. 

“We got a good total on the board on [Friday], with a young player from Wagga [Wagga] scoring his debut hundred for Riverina,” Poidevin said. 

“Me and Joe Cooke never batted because we were only two down after 50 overs.

“I we added 30 or 40 more runs on the board, we would have pushed a bit harder to get that win.” 

The story was much the same on the second day against Central Coast, who managed 162 on a bowler’s wicket. 

However, the Riverina side fell short again thanks to some “poor shot selection” in Poidevin’s opinion, and collapsed to be all out for 120. 

It was on the Sunday, against Illawarra, that Riverina finally found some form and clicked as a team. 

Batting first, they managed to finish the innings at 8/219 thanks to a fighting 84 from Jonathan Nicoll, who was arguably the batter of the tournament with three half centuries from three innings. 

In a nailbiting second innings, Illawarra fought to 203 before the last wicket fell in the last over. 

“It was a good way to finish the carnival,” Poidevin said. 

“We sort of have the same team going into this year, and we thought we were a good chance to win it. 

“But just a few batting errors on the first day, we didn’t bat around the young bloke that got a hundred, and that sort of cost us another 50 runs.” 

Although Poidevin was out for seven in his innings against Central Coast, he found some form against Illawarra, finishing with 17 which included a towering six over the opening bowler’s head. 

“Oh, he wasn’t happy,” Poidevin said of the fast bowler’s reaction.

Cooke had a less productive tour as captain, managing only a single run in two innings.