Application shown in face of heavy defeat

RECOVERY MODE: Paul Stewart, who is playing for the OBR club this season, helped rebuild the Poverty Bay innings after the Bay of Plenty second 11 got a clump of wickets at Mount Maunganui on Sunday. The BoP side won the 50-over match by 10 wickets. Picture by Liam Clayton

CRICKET

A LOSS by 10 wickets never looks pretty on the scoreboard for a cricket side suffering such a fate.

Poverty Bay were on the receiving end of a thrashing by the Bay of Plenty second 11 at Mount Maunganui on Sunday.

They were bowled out for 111 at the Bay Oval test venue and BoP cruised past the total in the 19th over with no wickets down.

But Poverty Bay also stuck at their task for 38.4 overs in the first innings of the Basil McBurney Trophy 50-over game, battling to put up a score the bowlers might have had some sort of shot at defending.

Skipper Andrew Gibbs said the side showed application with the bat after losing a clump of wickets.

It probably didn’t help that he won the toss and chose to bat and then a shower of rain spiced up the pitch.

“We lost key players early on,” he said.

“From that point, we never really got under way.

“People tried to scrap their way out. It was good to see some application.”

Poverty Bay lost three batsmen in the space of five balls — Thomas Hayes for a 16-ball duck, opener Nic Hendrie for 26 and Alex Gooding for nought.

Hendrie, who scored 127 for Tauranga club Greerton the previous day, was the fourth Poverty Bay batsman to depart. Gooding left two balls later and Poverty Bay were in trouble at 41-5.

No.7 Rowan Smith (18 off 49 balls) and No.8 Paul Stewart (19 off 51 balls) rebuilt the innings to some extent.

Gibbs said the home team bowled tightly and they were sharp in the field.

Forced to take risks to put the BoP side under pressure, Gibbs said he set aggressive and unusual fields in a bid to get early wickets.

“That can go one of two ways,” he said.

Either the bowling side creates opportunities and seizes the momentum or the batsmen profit from the space afforded them by attacking fields.

It wasn’t entirely plain sailing for the BoP openers, Fergus Lellman (55 not out) and Taylor Bettelhiem (49 not out), but they scored at 6.22 runs an over.

“They played smart, using a strong breeze to their advantage to hit downwind,” Gibbs said.

“It was one of those days where things didn’t go right for us.

“The game got away on us.”

Poverty Bay’s next assignment is a T20 tournament at Taupo this month.

Poverty Bay 111 off 38.4 overs (Nic Hendrie 26; Dominic Crombie 3-20, Daniel Price 2-20, Josh Earle 2-25) lost to Bay of Plenty second 11 115-0 off 18.3 overs (Fergus Lellman 55 not out, Taylor Bettelhiem 49 not out).