BOP complete easy Hawke Cup defence

IN FORM: Bay of Plenty allrounder Sean Davey made 53 in Bay of Plenty's massive total of 701. PHOTO:GEORGE NOVAK

Bay of Plenty simply batted Counties Manukau out of the Hawke Cup challenge at Bay Oval over Auckland Anniversary weekend.

More than a few eyebrows were raised when Counties won the toss and asked the defending Hawke Cup titleholders to bat first on a wicket that had produced an avalanche of runs this season.

The home team batted for just over two full days in a clinical batting attack that equalled the Bay of Plenty all-time highest total in 85 years.

Bay of Plenty were 75 for one when Yorkshire County professional Alex Lees strode to the crease. When the Bay number three was caught by Ash Vodnala after 301 minutes at the crease, he had rewritten the Bay of Plenty representative batting history. Lees blasted 223 runs that included 22 boundaries and one over the Bay Oval boundary picket fence.

Lees finished his turn at bat with the all-time highest score, going past Joe Carter's 215 made against Poverty Bay in 2014. He also took ownership of Bay of Plenty's highest Hawke Cup score, along with the most runs of a Bay player on debut. Another statistic unlikely to be repeated for a long time, was a century each to Lees and Donovan Deeble (108) who were both making their Hawke Cup debuts.

When Bay of Plenty were finally removed for 701 early on day three yesterday, they had equalled their all-time highest total when they took the Hawke Cup off Hamilton in 2013.

Bay of Plenty captain Peter Drysdale scored 84 and put on a partnership of 197 for the second wicket with Lees. Ben Musgrave (61), Sean Davey (53), Tony Gooding (46) and keeper Tim Clarke (45) also spent long periods at the batting crease. Another big partnership came from Deeble and Davey who produced 157 runs for the sixth wicket.

After so long in the field, Counties Manukau were quickly in trouble, losing their first wicket with just three runs on the board. The innings was a short, sharp affair that came to an end when they were removed for 220 to hand Bay of Plenty a massive 481-run first innings advantage. Captain Barry Rhodes top scored for the visitors with 65 after taking three wickets.

Chris Atkinson, who was making his first Bay of Plenty outing of the season, did plenty of damage taking 4-22. Deeble backed up his batting exploits with two wickets while young leggie Iman Singh also grabbed two bowling scalps.

The Bay of Plenty representatives have a busy time in front of them. They have a two-day Fergus Hickey Rosebowl against long-time rivals Hamilton next weekend, before backing up in their second Hawke Cup defence against the NZ Cricket Zone two challengers in two weeks time.

Bay of Plenty 701 (AZ Lees 223, DM Deeble 108, RPO Drysdale 84, BS Musgrave 61, SB Davey 53, TG Goodin 46, TJ Clarke 45; BA Rhodes 3/97, VE Davies 2/135)
Counties Manukau 220 (BA Rhodes 65; CM Atkinson 4/22, D Deeble 2/39, I Singh 2/83)
Bay of Plenty win by first innings points.