Northern Raiders import Jack Burnham scores first Australian century in win against Port Fairy

The English batsman, who also took 2-45 and two catches in the field, whacked an undefeated 126 from 122 deliveries against Port Fairy to lift his side to a seven-wicket win at Avery's Paddock.

"Super proud of the boys, we stuck in there with the ball," he said. "And then it was a nice pitch to bat on, it was nice to get a few runs."

Port Fairy, led by skipper Aaron Williams (53 runs) reached 8-202 after its 45 overs, before Burnham got to work with the bat to get his side home with 16 ball to spare. After some solid innings in his first three games - including a 53, 33 and 30 - Burnham said the chance to open the batting helped him go on

"I feel the ball goes really soft in the middle overs," he said. "So I tried to cash in with the new ball and get us off to the best start we could.

"Then just using my experience and working the ball around and keeping the scoreboard ticking over in the middle overs. Johnno (Benallack) coming in at the end and hitting a few boundaries made it a lot easier."

Burnham said he had had to figure out the best way to bat in recent conditions, going for "less boundaries and more running".

"The outfields were a bit faster (today) than they have been the last few weeks," he said. "It made life a bit easier."

Burnham will play in a Hudson Shield clash against South West Cricket Association on Sunday. He said he was looking forward to the chance to play representative cricket and Country Week this summer.

"It will be an experience," he said. "Before coming over it was something I wanted to try and get into. It's in Melbourne, it's the best standard.

"Hopefully that goes well."

The Raiders' latest win is their second of the season, with association newcomers Mortlake their next opponents.

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