Toronto Workers suffered a surprise 10-run loss to Wests in their Twenty20 match at Ron Hill Oval on Sunday.

And it was two sixes hit by Toronto batsmen into Stony Creek that had an unexpected impact on the run chase.

After losing openers Greg Hunt and Nathan Hudson early, Joe Price (25) and guest Lisarow import Mitchell Coombs (34) set about the recovery, and found the new ball to be pinging off the bat nicely.

Price was looking particularly dangerous, and crunched a lofted on-drive which bounced off the trees at the back of the ground and into the creek.

The Wests fielders launched a search party, and after a short delay the ball was retrieved from the drink.

But a second six, hit into the creek later in the Toronto innings, did more damage.

“We lost that ball, and the replacement ball seemed to be a lot older and softer,” Toronto captain Paul Toole said.

“We had three guys caught deep in the outfield trying to muscle it.”

But the skipper emphasized he was not using the changed ball as an excuse.

“We just left ourselves too much to do in the last six overs,” he said.

Batting first, Wests made 9-123 from their 20 overs.

Brinn Osland (2-16), Coombs (2-25) and Greg Hunt (2-23) each bagged a pair of wickets from their four overs.

“We bowled and fielded well early,” Toole said.

Toronto lost its way in the run chase, finishing at 7-113.

Hunt (7) looked set to launch into the Wests attack when he miscued a high ball to be caught at mid-on off lanky pace man Peter Lojszczyk.

Hunt and Hudson crossed while the ball was in flight, but the left-handed opener is probably wishing he’d stood his ground because he was given out caught behind down the leg side off Lojszczyk’s next ball.

Toole said his team learned a lesson about the need to rotate the strike more in Twenty20 cricket, and to aim to score off every ball.