The GBHS crew were 63-2 four balls into the 14th over on an artificial wicket against an extremely promising pace attack, Year 8 speedster Archer Allen taking 2-4 in two overs. Leg-spin also played a part for SLHS, in the form of Harvey Reynolds (1-8 off two overs) and Charlie Castles (1-10 off 2.3 overs).
SLHS No.1 Mitchell van Zyl (16 not out) then carried his bat, playing an excellent role in support of Gray.
Left-arm seamer and Life Guards CricHQ MVP (most valuable player) Taewa, with 1-13 off four, was his usual accurate and consistent self. Overall MVP Gray hit Mahabalage for four to bring up the win for SLHS off the second ball of the 15th over, to finish at 97-1.
Anaru Lucas stepped up against Campion.
Lucas bowled the GBHS Blues and Royals to victory in the last over of Round 4’s tightest game.
Blues and Royals captain George Gillies won the toss and chose to bat, and the GBHS team put up 147-2.
Akira Makiri hit seven fours on the way to his first half-century (53 from 55 balls). He also shared in an opening stand of 44 with Zyden Worsnop (29).
Makiri put on 63 with Gillies, then 40 for the third wicket with left-hander Jarrod Ormiston (16no).
Campion second-change seamer Aiden Armstrong (1-14 off two overs) and Ramandeep Singh (1-41 off four overs) were the College’s wicket-takers.
Gillies backed up his 33 from 28 balls with figures of 2-6 in three overs of off-spin and ran out Gagandeep Singh (3, batting at No.4) to be the match and GBHS MVP.
Campion MVP Joe Singh, who came in at No.5, played an excellent innings of 51 not out off 40 balls in the chase.
In an inspired move, Gillies took a calculated risk and chose Emme Elsmore to bowl overs 17 and 19. Campion’s best batsmen were unable to pick up the trajectory of the well-flighted ball and were blinded by the sun. Elsmore took 2-12 in two overs, including the wicket of the dangerous Connor Starck (14), who came in at No.6.
It was left to another aspiring all-rounder, Taye McGuinness, to throw caution to the wind. Gillies again — correctly — backed a young bowler to deliver, and Lucas responded. His two overs cost 43 runs but with the slog on, he conceded only two boundaries as McGuinness (13) and Singh, denied leverage by Lucas, had to run hard against athletes set farther than 30 metres from the bat.
Gillies was delighted by the start Makiri and Worsnop gave the Blues and Royals, the quality of the bowling (by Elsmore, in particular) and his team’s hard work in the field.
Grace Levy needs 58 runs.
Tairawhiti Women’s Cricket Club opener Levy, The Challenge Cup’s third most prolific batter, averages 39 and in four games has scored 116 runs.
Should she score 58 runs today — for 174 runs in total — she will have scored one more run than Sonrise-Lytton High School titan David Gray did in his unbeaten innings against the Blues and Royals on February 23. With Gray’s return to Palmerston North and the five-round competition winding up, only GBHS Admiralty captain Nathaniel Fearnley — of those players expected to play on the last day — has more runs (129 at 33). Fearnley needs at least 45 runs to surpass Gray.
The Admiralty lost to the TWCC under Savanah McGhee by 29 runs last week.
McGhee won the toss and, having opted to bat, was rewarded as Levy and Jess Hayward (29) put up 118 in 15.3 overs.
Levy scored her second half-century of the Challenge Cup season, carrying her bat for 59.
Paceman Ben Langford (1-17 in four overs) was Boys’ High School’s best bowler.
Langford and Levy were their teams’ MVPs, the latter also being the overall match MVP.
Langford (34) and opener Dylan Worsnop (22) shared a 58-run partnership in the chase. Worsnop fell to the TWCC sixth bowler, left-armer Elenor Walsh, 11.2 overs in. Walsh has been good value all season, and finished with 2-20 from four overs.
Second-drop Fearnley, who kept wicket in the field, cobbled together 30 off 18 balls as the Admiralty got to 114-5 in 20 overs — 29 runs short of the TWCC total.
The last round of Challenge Cup matches today from 3.30pm at Nelson Park has the unbeaten Sonrise-Lytton High School (4-4, 12 points) taking on the Admiralty (7pts) on the Enterprise wicket. Campion (4pts) are again on the middle pitch against the Life Guards; Gillies’s Blues and Royals (3pts) are listed as the home team to play the TWCC (6pts) directly below the carpark.
As a side note, the West Gisborne Rural Schools team who featured in The Gisborne Herald last Thursday, achieved their first win in the primary hardball grade at Nelson Park over the weekend.
The David Milne-coached rural team beat the TWCC under Mel Knight by 18 runs. Second-drop Charlie Butt (20) and No.3 Arthur Cave (17) both retired as the rural team reached 117-4 in 20 overs.
The best-performed TWCC bowler was Gloria Donaldson (1-4 from two overs), while their best batters on Saturday were opener Sacha Dobson and No.5 Zara Kirkpatrick. Both retired with 10 runs off 19 balls. TWCC finished at 99-3 in 20 overs. The rural team’s Conrad Parkes (1-2) and Ben Loffler (1-8) both bowled two overs. Cave and Donaldson were the CricHQ MVPs for their teams, and Cave was the overall MVP.
Both teams played the game in fine spirit.
