Horouta rebound with 80-run win over GBHS

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Te Waka were superb in Round 2 of premier grade Doleman Cup cricket.

The David Situ-led Breakers Horouta rebounded from a 156-run loss to beat the Gisborne Boys’ High School first 11 by 80 runs on Saturday.

Put in to bat on Harry Barker Reserve No.3 by Boys’ High co-captain Jarrod Ormiston, Horouta got off to a great start.

Harmanpreet Singh (47) and Ben Brick (18) put up an opening stand of 78. Situ then made 76 not out from No.4 and Harpreet Chema, with an unbeaten 25, helped to get Horouta to 221-4 in 40 overs.

The four-man pace attack arrayed against them was tidy but with the introduction of spin in the 17th over, GBHS were able to apply more pressure.

Leg-spinner Ruan Ludwig (1-43 from eight overs) and left-arm orthodox spinner Riker Rolls (2-35 from eight) bowled tight lines and their variation in flight and length made for absorbing cricket.

In response, the Boys’ High left-hand/right-hand pairing of Ormiston (4) and Alex Shanks at the top of the order produced 35. Shanks’s 52 was his first half-century since he made 71 against Te Waka on February 11 and the first by a first 11 batsman since Kelan Bryant’s 88 against Rotorua Boys’ High at the Super 8 on March 23.

Shanks is a busy player, good off his legs, and can punish the bad ball. This timely knock of 52 was a fine effort, which he has the ability to repeat and his teammates can emulate. Akira Makiri made 19 off 37 balls from No.5 — a good start and one that this promising all-rounder can build on.

Makiri and Shanks batted with positive intent.

Not since former captains Robbie Tallott and Drew Scott scored centuries batting together — once as a pair in 2016, and again as a pair in 2017 — has any GBHS first 11 cricketer reached three figures.

Horouta’s bowlers made a hairy start – the first ball from Dulakshana Sandith went for three wides — but his dismissal of Ormiston (4) caught and bowled, four balls into the fifth over was a big moment in the run-chase.

Seamer Jagroop Singh (1-29 from six overs) picked up No.3 Nathaniel Fearnley for seven, also with a good grab in the former High School Old Boys man’s follow-through.

Situ (2-14 from five overs) and fellow medium-pacer Vishal Thakur (3-13, five overs, one maiden) were the pick of Horouta’s bowlers. Thakur also held two catches, and his captain had cause to be delighted.

Situ said: “That was a much better performance today. Our openers took the pressure off the guys in the middle-order.”

Ormiston’s co-captain Bekko Page saw Boys’ High play some very good cricket in parts.

“Our young left-arm swing bowler Caleb Taewa bowled three overs and by the end of his spell was threatening the edge,” he said.

“Alex (Shanks) played really well, especially when cutting and playing very good punchy back-foot drives. He was unlucky not to take four runs off some of those shots because the outfield was slow.

“Akira (Makiri) was in good batting form too, especially with his running between wickets, turning strike over and ones into twos."

Steve Lamb is a capable cricketer.

In Round 1, as spearhead of the Bollywood HSOB pace attack, he impressed in taking 1-16 from six overs against Te Waka. On Saturday, he again swung and seamed the ball to take 3-17 from five overs, one of which was a maiden, against Coastal Concrete Old Boys Rugby.

Lamb came on at first change in the blue-and-whites’ 51-run win. His successor with the new ball, Poverty Bay left-armer Jak Rowe, likewise produced a maiden. His came during eight overs from which he conceded only 17 runs.

Although he didn’t take a wicket, Rowe was a prominent figure in the game. He dug in with the bat, making 10 off 29 balls from No.8 and was the last man out, caught by Hayden Keast, low to his left at short mid-wicket off the bowling of Jimmy Holden (3-21 from 4.5 overs).

HSOB were dismissed for 157 in 37.5 overs. Only sixth-man-in Scott Tallott (23) and Lamb, batting No.9, scored 20 runs or more.

Lamb zapped 39 runs from 17 balls, with three sixes and three fours. He hit the second and third balls of Nick Greeks’s sixth over for six and then hit another boundary, and hit the first two balls of that left-arm orthodox spinner’s seventh over for four before hitting another six. It was a blistering assault.

OBR captain Greeks had won the toss on Harry Barker No.3 and opted to bowl.

In their innings, OBR were all out for 106 in 27.2 overs. Nathan Trowell, having returned from Auckland University, made their highest individual score of 24 from No.3.

Holden (15) and Greeks (1) put on 29 for the eighth wicket but Lamb, Anthony Boyder (3-27 from 4.2 overs) and left-arm quickie Keegan Jooste (2-27 from five) were in devastating form.

Graham Sharp is a true competitor. Last week he and Dave Castle (91) shared an opening stand of 40; this week, he and Baxter Mackay (15) got to 24.

Seventeen and 13 are small pickings for the mild-mannered South African, a cricketer of invaluable grit.

In the past four years, he has given excellent service to the game on behalf of Gisborne Boys’ High School, Poverty Bay and now HSOB. For him an innings of consequence may be just around the corner.

HSOB game-day skipper Carl Shaw said: “Jak (Rowe) bowled well but was unlucky, while Steve (Lamb) also had great length and good control. As a unit, we were positive and gave ourselves a real chance, showing heart and sticking at it.”

Both premier grade umpires, Jason Trowill (HSOB v OBR) and Stewart Patrick (Horouta v GBHS), performed solidly.