The Bay of Plenty cricket team is opening its season campaign in Taupo tomorrow in a changed Brian Dunning Trophy format.
The team is heading for Owen Delaney Park in Taupo for three rounds of the annual Northern Districts tournament while the teams that don't play will face each other later
in the season.
With a youthful blend, new Bay selector Mathew Hart and colleague Vernon Roy have picked Mitchell Sweetman as captain, with Matthew Drake and Ben Williams having 32 and 25 Bay caps respectively. Former Black Cap Llorne Howell will again bring plenty of expertise to the side.
The young guns are led by schoolboys Kane Williamson and Trent Boult - the New Zealand under-19 team members were impossible to leave out.
Meanwhile, the Tauranga Intermediate boys team have earned a trip to the Milo Cup national finals in Wellington next month.
The Bay team stormed into the finals on Wednesday, batting first against St Kentigern and reaching 165-5 with Francois Potgieter scoring an unbeaten 42. At 120-1, St Kents seemed home and hosed but in a remarkable turnaround Tauranga took out the match by 25 runs as their bowlers blitzed the last nine wickets for 20 runs.
BOP Team: Mitchell Sweetman (captain) Jono Boult, Mark Divehall, Llorne Howell, Kane Williamson, Mathew Drake, Ben Williams, Craig Budd, Trent Boult, Andrew Hoogstraten (Western BOP) Mark Chapman (Rotorua) James Mitchell (Eastern BOP).
Milo Cup: Tauranga Intermediate 165/5 (F Potgieter 42no, T MacRury 39, J Joseph 23, S McCarthy 22) defeated St Kentigern 140 (F Potgieter 3/24, S White 2/10, K Heatherly 2/12, S McCarthy 2/25).
