Last year’s Hastings River District Cricket Association winners dug themselves out of trouble to post an impressive 8-161 off their 40 overs.

Captain Josh Hyde conceded they managed to scramble an extra 30 runs as they took advantage of a lethargic opposition in the closing stages of their innings.

At one stage they were on the ropes at 6-95 after 32 overs before Liam Coelho (29) and Luke Boxhall (19) contributed valuable lower-order runs.

Scott Witchard (31) backed up his form from the May Kelly Cup the day before.

Despite the trouble they were in, Hyde remained confident his side would post a respectable total.

“I don’t think there is any situation we find ourselves in that we can’t find a way to get out of it,” he said.

“Saturday was good with Luke Boxhall and Liam who took the game away when it needed to be done.

“In the Ashes they talk about winning the big moments and when they had us 5-80 it was the moment in the game that they needed to get us all out and we took that away from them.

“We ended up with 160 and I thought 120 was par.”

Hyde felt Port City counterpart Gordon Scott erred in bowling first after he won the toss.

“Him winning the toss and bowling first after we spent most of the Friday in the field in the heat playing two games of cricket probably played into our hands a bit,” he said.

“Some of their better players after being in the field for so long made some poor choices with the bat.”

Hyde was satisfied his side found a way to win after last week’s hiccup in Taree.

“There’s always someone who wants to put their hand up and be the person that does the job so it’s pleasing as captain to have that,” he said.

Port City’s run chase never really got going as they slumped to 9-49 before they were bundled out for 95 in the 27^th over.

Three ducks and four scores under five littered the scorecard.

“We took the foot off the throat,” captain Gordon Scott said.

“It was quite warm and I think the heat got to a lot of the boys and they took full advantage of it.”

Scott admitted Macquarie were simply too good and backed up his belief they are the team to beat for the title.

“We had another top order batting collapse,” he said.

“When we had them under the pump their batsmen were quite solid and didn’t throw their wickets away.”

“They dug in and worked hard for their runs whereas we weren’t patient enough.”

Ben Marron (25) and Jason Herdegen at number 10 top scored with 33, otherwise it could have been far worse.

“They’re just a very well-drilled side; they were too good for us,” Scott said.