Nulla remain in the all-important top four despite losing to the Port City League Magpies.

Nulla’s lethal bowling attack failed to fire on Saturday as the Magpies reached an imposing 244 total off their four overs.

The Nulla batting outfit wasn’t able to get going in response and they were dismissed for 112 in the 24th over.

“Credit to Port City, they were a class above,” Nulla captain Ben Taylor said.

“I made a bad call and bowled first, the pitch was green but played well.

“We found it too much of an uphill battle to replace the four first team players we had out.”

Nulla’s Nick Clarke, Bryce Widdison, Mark Smee and Dan Morrison were unavailable for the clash with the Magpies but Taylor is hopeful all will make their returns this Saturday except for Dan, who will miss at least one more week.

Taylor claimed there is still plenty of positives to take out of the match, despite the convincing defeat.

“A 240 odd chase was always going to be very hard, we needed to be perfect to win and their opening bowlers were very good,” Taylor said.

“The 112 looks bad but we were 4-90 after 20 overs. We’ll take a positive from that in knowing we can boost our run rate a bit when we bolster our side for the last three games.”

Meanwhile Rovers faced off with the competition leaders Macquarie and almost caused an upset.

A dominant final 20 overs with the ball in hand restricted Macquarie to 166 runs.

Macquarie were cruising at the 20 over drinks break at 0/100 but spin bowlers Mitch Korn and Jared Baldwin upped the ante to slow down the run rate and pick up important wickets.

Rovers were confident in response but weren’t able to get it done as they suffered a late collapse.

Rovers remain in the hunt for a spot in the finals but they will need to be close to perfect over the final four rounds to sneak into top four on the ladder.

“It’s going to be hard from here but we will hopefully go on a run like we did before Christmas and string some wins together,” Rovers captain Danny Powick said.

“We just need to believe in ourselves and if we can win three of the last four games then we should be up there near a finals spot.”

Rovers fielded their 17th player of the season on Saturday with Callan McKiernan opening the batting for the Premier League side.

Rovers face Wingham while Nulla are up against Taree West this Saturday.