The scoreboard, as it were, may not reflect it but the Hawke's Bay senior men's rep cricket team have booked themselves a Hawke Cup challenge barring any colossal upsets.
The Colin Schaw-coached Pay Excellence-sponsored team drew their rain-abandoned two-day match against Taranaki at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, yesterday after claiming first-innings points to leapfrog their opposition as the top qualifiers with a game to play against lowly Wairarapa in Napier in a fortnight.
Having won the toss on Saturday, skipper Jacob Smith put Taranaki in before skittling them for 161 runs in 75.5 overs.
The Bay then posted 170 in 36.2 overs as rain kicked in and persisted yesterday before the game was called off about 2pm.
"We only just got there but in the circumstances it looks worse off on the score book than what it was and how we did it," Schaw said. "We had to do it in 36 overs [on Saturday] because of the weather [yesterday] so we really had to work for it."