Situ, Coastal Ultrasound Horouta’s MVP (most valuable player) of the Hope Cup final, was at the wicket with No.11 Clarence Campbell. Situ had hit seamer Mike Gibson for six off the previous ball before holing out at Cow Corner for 80. That last snaffle by Raleigh was his third catch of the day.
“I don’t remember what I was thinking at the time, just that we needed two runs,” said the 20-year-old Situ, whose side fielded for 30 overs in 26-degree heat and then lost opener Heyan Ranasinghe — caught Gibson, bowled Gardner — off the first ball of the innings.
“As the second innings progressed, we just kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Ngatapa were the better team on the day.”
Raleigh won the toss and opted to bat. Ngatapa made 154-6 off 30 overs, opener Chris Richardson top-scoring with 48. Richardson was Ngatapa’s MVP of the final for his excellent knock and for matching Raleigh’s tally of three catches on the day.
First-drop Joe Loffler added substance to Ngatapa’s total with 24.
Lively seamer Vaughan Thompson (3-26 off six overs), opening bowler Tushar Balat (1-20), left-arm orthodox spinner Clarence Campbell (1-24) and wily Amit Vyas (1-28) were the wicket-takers for Horouta.
In answer, Ngatapa medium-pacers Gardner (4-33 off six) and Gibson (2-23), big left-armer Will Faulks (2-16) and the experienced Joe Loffler (2-18) were penetrative while bowling tightly.
Situ and Vyas shared a seventh-wicket stand of 50 — the biggest partnership of the game — before Vyas was caught by wicketkeeper Simon Wilson off Faulks.
Wilson and Richardson had earlier put on 48 at the top of the innings before the Ngatapa gloveman was removed by his opposite, Teretu Te Moananui, stumped for 17 off the bowling of Campbell.
In a 30-over final against big men who can clear the boundary, 155 is a fair score on the No.1 ground at the Harry Barker Reserve (the boundaries of which are longest square of the wicket) — but falls on the side of having runs on the board . . . as opposed to being in the box seat.
Ngatapa manager Chris Hurlstone paid tribute to the 35 players — including four schoolboys — who have represented the club in a season which began with a nine-wicket loss to Horouta on October 27; six batsmen were out for a duck, the side was bowled out for 48 in 15 overs and Horouta won the game in 5.4 overs. The epic rematch on February 9 — a last-ball tie — ended with Phil Cook being run out as he came back for two for Ngatapa. Horouta had been bowled out for 103 in 27 overs; Ngatapa were dismissed for 103 in 30.
The improvement in Ngatapa this summer has been remarkable: they finished the 16-round, five-team competition with nine wins and the SK White Cup for Efficiency, while Horouta — one of the hardest-working and most passionate clubs in Poverty Bay Cricket — won seven games out of 10 and took the Kyber Hardware Cup as beaten finalists in the championship.
A number of players involved in Saturday’s Hope Cup final won individual awards: Ngatapa’s Jock Spence claimed the Carrol Cup for the best bowling average (six runs per wicket). Situ won the Hayes Family Trophy for the highest batting aggregate (319 runs, high score 80) while his teammate Keegan Martin was awarded the HH Barker Cup for the highest batting average (66, high score 109 not-out). Horouta’s Tushar Balat won the Poverty Bay Cricket Association Shield as the Hope Cup’s best all-rounder (14 wickets, at an average 8.36 runs per wicket — batting average 25, high score of 46 not-out).
“That was a really good way to end a great season — what a crazy game,” said Raleigh’s co-captain Lyle Crudis of the 2019 Hope Cup final. “Cricket has given our older players a chance to get back into the club, and already the boys are talking about next year!”
