The honours are even between Hoggies Wines Barber Shield rivals East Gambier and North Sportsman’s after a classic opening day of long-form cricket.
The Tigers were sent into bat on a greenish Scott Park surface and found the going tough straight away.
Star batter Jake Schutz was promoted to open but could not get going against Bulldogs’ captain Alex Hentschke.
Eventually Hentschke found the edge to finish Schutz’s misery after a 19-ball duck.
In his second experience opening the batting, Elliott Fisher found the boundary rope early, but also battled for any fluency alongside Michael Johnston.
The duo dug deep to see through the tough period and take the shine off the new ball.
When Elliott started to find some more confidence after 20 overs at the crease scoring two fours, the pair appeared to set a strong platform.
However, Elliott’s hard-fought 27 was finished by Hentschke, who returned to make a mess of the new-look stumps.
Spin was soon seen from both ends and runs were difficult to come by as the fielders closed in.
Travis Younghusband and Kev Thomson were the tweakers, who kept rums at a premium with North only compiling 60 runs from 39 overs.
However, the leg breaks of Ben Hentschke made the biggest impact with his second delivery.
Johnston looked set for another long stint at the crease after compiling a hard-fought 17, but he was stumped by the man with the fastest gloves in the east, Dion Stratford.
At 3/60 the Tigers needed a big partnership to get the innings going and their leaders rose to the occasion.
North captain Nick McInerney joined T20 skipper Declan Kenny and the duo used their experience to turn the game their way.
Kenny had already reached double figures and continued on his marry way, while McInerney provided a strong hand of support.
The number four was not afraid to increase the scoring rate and hit Ben Hentschke for a big six.
The pair sweated on anything short of a length and put on 59 for the fourth wicket.
Eventually Ben Hentschke got his man trapping Kenny lbw for 55.
Despite the loss, McInerney remained steadfast on scoring runs as keeper Mitch Lewis also looked assured.
The scoring rate continued to lift as the Tigers were on the prowl towards 200, while their skipper brought up his half century with a sweet four off his opposite number.
With the scoreboard reading 4/185 late in the day, North looked set to finish its innings in a commanding position, but the Bulldogs wrestled back some momentum on the cusp of stumps.
The leading wicket takers of the season so far Alex Hentschke and Liam Turley once again showed their class finishing the day in style picking up 6/26 in the last eight overs to restrict North to 211.
The East captain had the most poles with four, while Turley’s 3/33 looked good on the scorecard.
