"A hundred and eighty wasn't a bad score, but it was probably a pitch worthy of 250 and had we had another 70, and you look at the time it took them to chase down the 180, but also the fact they would have been under more pressure from the start, that would have made all the difference.
"So really if one of our top order guys, who are all good top order batsmen in their own right, had kicked on, it would have been a different game."
Sensing the need to get early wickets, Central Indians set an attacking field and had the visitors in trouble at eight for two.
"That got us in the game a bit, but then Ben Guild batted particularly well. He got pretty comfortable from the start, he had a couple of plays and misses, but he really knuckled down and worked really hard and Blair McKenzie supported him."As it went on, the pitch flattened out and the ball started to do less and less and it was pretty hard work. We managed to pick up Blair's wicket but that was more through a bad decision by him when he managing to hit it to a fielder on the boundary, and that was pretty much curtains sadly."
Central Indians had to bolster their numbers with four reserve grade players from the Rotorua competition while the Mount's reserve were from the Western Bay of Plenty reserve grade competition.
"The Western Bay reserve competition is quite a good standard and their reserve grade players coming in didn't look out of place, whereas, in our case the Mount boys could really spot the three or four players who aren't regulars at this level and capitalised accordingly."
Central Indians now face an uphill struggle to make it to fourth place in the competition.
"At the start of second round we were sitting in fourth and looking to stay in that fourth, or maybe even push up to third, but now we probably need some results to go our way, but we'll keep scrapping hard.
Elsewhere, long-time Cadets player Ben Christensen produced the best Baywide bowling figures of the season, ripping through Te Puke's batting attack to take six wickets at a cost of just 13 runs.
Cadets batted first at the Te Puke Domain and were bowled out for what looked to be a modest 153. Cadets skipper Scott Steward anchored his team innings with a gritty 55 runs. Cam Riley did plenty of damage with the ball grabbing a five-wicket bag while Jonty Grigson returned 3/15.
Then began a procession of Te Puke batsmen coming and going at the crease, as Ben Christensen ripped out six opposition batsmen, with the home side removed for 85. Josh Early earned respectability at the crease with his sides top score of 25.
Greerton chased down the Tauranga Boys' College total of 200/9 with seven wickets to spare and almost certainly booked a place in the Williams Cup semifinals.
Results
Bayleys Central Indians 180 (Andrew Gibbs 66, Ajay Kumar 21; Nathan Moffatt 3/40, Brenton Thompson 2/18, Kyle Dovey 2/33) lost to Carrus Mount Maunganui 183/4 (Ben Guild 61no, Logan Dench 50no, Blair McKenzie 44; Himesh Gosai 2/23)
Cooney Lees Morgan Tauranga Boys' College 200/9 (Mikaere Leef 40, Ben Pomare 36, Dominic Crombie 29, Iman Singh 25; Lee Watkins 2/24, Shane Wineti 2/30, Murray Jarvis 2/31, James Boyd 2/39) lost to Eves Realty Greerton 201/3 (Lee Watkins 65no, Shane Wineti 60,Chann Lubana 28no, Harrison Perry 26)
Element IMF Cadets 153 (Scott Steward 55; Cam Riley 5/28, Jonty Grigson 3/15) defeated New World Te Puke 85 (Josh Earle 25; Ben Christensen 6/13)
Williams Cup Points Table: Carrus Mount Maunganui 46, Element IMF Cadets 46, Eves Realty Greerton 39, New World Te Puke 22, Bayleys Central Indians 15, Cooney Lees Morgan Tauranga Boys' College 10.
