The Rhinos won the toss and backed in their bowling attack on a solid batting wicket against the bottom of the ladder side.
The move proved costly however, with the Bloods putting on arguably their best performance of the season to close out the day’s play at 6/250 after 80 overs.
Rhinos skipper Brad Todd was quite surprised with how the day went, praising Tocumwal for their efforts.
‘‘We didn’t take any early wickets and that put Tocumwal in a good spot for the rest of the day,’’ he said.
‘‘You want to be at the best you can all the time and we were down a little on Saturday, whether that’s because the game is a dead rubber and the guys just went through the motions or whether we got ourselves up too much for Cobram last game.
‘‘I am hoping our worst bowling performance for the year was due to that and we can perform well with the bat on Saturday.
‘‘In saying that our bowling has been great leading up to this point, so it was probably best we got that performance with the ball out of the way when it doesn’t mean too much in the scheme of things.
‘‘Tocumwal batted very well and conditions for batting were the best we have seen on our wicket for some time.
‘‘We shared the ball around quite a bit as well in preparation for the finals.
‘‘Our bowling wasn’t spectacular but kudos to the Bloods, they batted well throughout the day.’’
The Bloods were led by import Brad House, who hit 12 boundaries on his way to 80 runs.
Opener Daniel Hibberd chipped in with 35 runs, while all-rounder Jesse Barker finished the day 59 not out, which included three boundaries and three ‘sixes’.
Anthony Bradley was the pick of the bowlers finishing with 3/39 off 12, while Nick Burnell (0/30 off 14) and Andrew Hogan (1/27 off 13) also bowled well.
‘‘It was good to see Nick (Burnell) back and bowl with some pace for the first time in a couple of weeks,’’ Todd said.
‘‘Hoges was business as usual, Wriggler (Bradley) took a couple of late wickets in the day and Brodie Bennett (0/13 off eight) bowled a tight spell during the middle overs.
‘‘It is the perfect chase for us to lead into the finals.
‘‘If we want to do well we need to be able to chase down a decent score and Tocumwal have provided that for us this week.
‘‘It will be a good test for our batsmen and provide great preparation for the semi final.’’
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