St George and Sutherland have suffered deflating losses to start their 2019-20 NSW Premier Cricket first grade campaigns on Saturday.
At Hurstville Oval, Saints took on Manly-Warringah in their one-day limited-overs fixture with plenty of representative stars on show.
While Australia batsman Kurtis Patterson and NSW bowler Trent Copeland were available for St George, Manly had Blues pair Mickey and Jack Edwards in their side along with Australia under-19s fast bowler Ryan Hadley and emerging teenage batsman Ollie Davies.
Saints captain Nick Stapleton won the toss and elected to bat, with the hosts getting off to a strong start as openers Stapleton and Luke Bartier passed 50.
But the pair would fall to Hadley and Jack Edwards within five runs of each other and when Blake Nikitaras fell shortly after St George were in trouble at 3-67.
Patterson and Copeland put on 59 for the fourth wicket before Copeland departed for 27.
Patterson pushed on but when the left-hander fell for 47 St George were in serious trouble.
Saints limped to 9-225 at the end of their 50 overs thanks to a 40-run final wicket stand between Tom Ortiz (8 not out) and St George debutant Joseph Graham (25 not out) against his former club.
Copeland (2-38) had St George in the game with two quick wickets but the visitors timed their run chase to perfection, reaching the target with one ball to spare and five wickets in hand.
At Glenn McGrath Oval, Sutherland copped a 163-run hammering at the hands of Gordon.
The Sharks were left licking their wounds after Gordon smashed 7-303 from their 50 overs thanks to 88 from captain Harry Evans.
Tom Pinson and Jake Wilson took two wickets each for Sutherland.
In reply, the Sharks suffered a massive early blow when Ashwin Premkumar knocked over former Test all-rounder Shane Watson for 5.
Fellow opener Jarryd Biviano (47) top-scored for Sutherland but a steady flow of wickets saw the hosts rolled for just 140.
Glenn Winsor did the bulk of the damage for Gordon as he ripped apart the Sharks' middle order, taking 3-14 from seven overs including the wickets of Sutherland captain Chris Williams (17), Tom Doyle (12) and Aiden Bariol (6).
St George and Sutherland will look to bounce back when they start day one of their two-day, round two fixtures on Saturday. Sutherland host Eastern Suburbs at Caringbah, while St George make the short journey to Bankstown.
