‘I want runs’: OBR out to put Presidents to the sword

Poverty Bay Cricket is hitting its straps.

With the premier grade already back under way and several Poverty Bay teams competing in the Riverbend cricket camps in recent weeks, the Senior B club competition is set to resume from 2pm tomorrow at Harry Barker Reserve.

Defending Senior B champions Bollywood High School Old Boys Presidents (on four competitions points) host last season’s beaten finalists Rawhiti Legal Old Boys Rugby (16pts) on the practice wicket.

A new-look Gisborne Boys’ High School second 11 (1pt) play Horouta Te Waka (12pts) on ground 3 at the reserve.

And Campion College first 11 (6pts), now under Hamish Swann, are to go up against Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps (19pts) on ground 4.

Craig Christophers is back in charge of OBR.

“I want runs. Thom “The Hammer” Berry and Jannie Jacobs both have the game to score hundreds in the 30-over format,” Christophers said.

“Ideally, we’ll win the toss, bat first and score 300. That would take the pressure off the bowlers.

“From the bowling side of things, we need to limit our wides. We can’t afford to give HSOB any help.”

Presidents skipper Ollie Needham may or may not be aware that OBR conceded 24 wides in their last outing — a one-wicket loss in the top-of-the-table clash against Ngatapa.

But while the Green Caps bowled two wides fewer than the-then Berry-led OBR, and got home with three balls to spare on that occasion, Needham knows that for his blue and whites to pick up three competition points tomorrow, they will need to keep HSOB’s wide count as close to single digits as possible.

“From our perspective, a good performance culminating in a win would be nice because we’re excited by the new additions to our 2022 squad and look forward to seeing what value they can add,” Needham said. “Young Marcus Gray impressed us all at training on Wednesday and we welcome back club stalwart Jarrod Renouf, who’s raring to go this weekend after a break of several years from the game.

“Hopefully, too, Matt Jefferd will add starch to our batting in his first appearance this season. Matt’s presence will lift the boys’ self-belief against a strong OBR unit.”

In the Round 8 clash between OBR and Ngatapa, the former’s pace bowler Lloyd van Zyl, batting at No.6, made a superb 59 from 63 balls but OBR — three times during the course of the first innings — lost two wickets at the same score.

Neither Needham nor Christophers, whose outfit won the first Hope Cup final replay by 53 runs in the October 30 season-opener on the back of two unbeaten innings (126 from first-drop Jacobs, 59 from No.1 Christophers), will want to count their chickens before they hatch.

Ngatapa beat Campion by four wickets in the season-opener and by five wickets in the December 4 rematch.

Going solely on results, the gap between the teams has grown, but in truth the Mark Naden-coached college pushed the Green Caps harder the second time around.

Ngatapa brought the win up with only seven balls remaining.

For the all-student team to restrict a strike bowler in Ryan West to one wicket on October 30 and hold him wicketless in the Round 6 rematch — bearing in mind too his pace and season’s best return of 4-10 from four overs on December 18 versus then-competition leaders OBR — is proof of Campion’s pluck and skill.

Naden’s game plan for tomorrow’s clash revolves around his batsmen’s patience and correct identification of the bad ball, which must then be converted into runs.

Aggressive fielding and the corridor of uncertainty for his own bowlers are also elements of a simple and solid blueprint.

The seamer who rattled the stumps of three of the college’s best in Round 1 at Nelson Park — Ben Holden — is not in the Green Caps line-up for tomorrow’s game.

Former Campion captain Liam Spring was superb for them at Nelson, and if one of their post-spring era batsmen can make 69 or bat half as well on good grass as he did then on an artificial pitch, then they have a fighting chance of victory.

Gisborne Boys’ High School cricket has had a rush of new blood.

That blood includes two promising left-arm swing bowlers in Jack Holden and Caleb Taewa, and right-armers Arlo Willis, Ted Gillies and Brandon Fearnley.

Brandon’s older brother Nathaniel is vice-captain to the GBHS second 11’s game-day skipper George Gillies for their game against Horouta Te Waka.

Good cricketers are blooded in the system on potential and their ability to field, bowl and bat, but are never included merely for experience or to make numbers up.

Gisborne Boys’ have depth in the spin bowling department and as with most young teams, they have decent seam-up options also.

The side have passed 100 as a team total only once this season and late last year Kelan Bryant (now elevated to the school’s first 11) made their only half-century as an individual.

That makes the arrival of Dylan Torrie from Napier BHS and Nathaniel Fearnley from Kings College, most timely. Both are capable batsmen.

George Gillies said: “We’ve lost a few players to the first 11 but the new players coming through look like a talented bunch. We’re all keen to see what Saturday’s game brings.”

Horouta recovered from 35-3 to reach 199-9 in 30 overs in the last clash with Boys’ High on the practice wicket — the reserve’s smallest ground.

Te Waka’s second-drop Aman Kamboj (70) and captain Mel Knight (55 not-out from No.5) were outstanding with the bat on that day, just as Northern Brave representative Kayley Knight (59) had been when the sides met in Round 1.

Bryant’s 54 made up the bulk of GBHS’ 104 in the rematch. Both sides had seven players score five or fewer than five runs on that day, a wince-inducing reality.

Hopefully those who went without a meaningful score in either of the two games played to date for The Waka and Gisborne Boys’ wield the willow to greater effect tomorrow.

Gisborne BHS second 11: Nathaniel Fearnley, George Gillies, Jack Holden, Ben Langford, Malsha Mahabalage, Akira Makiri, Keanu Makiri, Riker Rolls, Dylan Torrie, Jett Whitaker, Kavindu Withanage (wkp), Dylan Worsnop.

Horouta Te Waka: Akshay Akshay, Clarence Campbell, Riley Horsfield (wkp), James Craig, Grace Levy, Aman Kamboj, Mel Knight (c), Billy Morse, Chaitanya Sambare, Teghbir Singh, Vishal Singh, Mike Tapp.

Campion College first 11: Aiden Armstrong, Daniel Baillie (wkp), Anikate Bandral, Izahn Duckworth, Jonty Fenn, Rhys Grogan, Taye McGuinness, Gagandeep Singh, Joe Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Connor Starck, Hamish Swann (c).

CPS Ngatapa Green Caps: Zac Borrie, Jeremy Castles, Thor Crombie, Will Faulks, Mike Gibson (c), Chris Hurlstone, Luke Hurlstone, Jack Jefferd, Cam McNaught, Aidan Starck, Ryan West, Harry White.

Bollywood HSOB Presidents: Nic Armour, Jeff Chambers, Mike Francis, Marcus Gray, Kyle Jean-Louis, Matt Jefferd, Mahmood Khan, Anil Kumar, Ollie Needham (c, wkp), Jarrod Renouf, Nathan Quimpo, Yegan Lanka.

Rawhiti Legal OBR: Thom Berry (wkp), Craig Christophers (c), Johnathan Gray, Sean Henry, Matt Lotar Mcfatter, George Reynolds, Mana Taumanu, Lloyd van Zyl, Phil Viljoen, senior, Amit Vyas, Tama Wirepa.