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CRICKET
You just had to be there.
Round 4 of the Colts T15 nine-a-side cricket league yesterday produced superb performances in all three matches at Nelson Park.
In Gisborne Girls’ High School’s eight-wicket win against the Dnature Dragons, seamers Maddie Ashworth (3-7 off two overs) and Grace Kuil (2-8 off two) were superb.
Bollywood High School Old Boys Pups wicketkeeper Jack Whitehead-McKay scored his second colts unbeaten half-century — 54 from 30 balls — in three weeks, this time in a 17-run victory over the Auto Tyre Eagles.
And Eastland Broncos leg-spinning all-rounder David Gray drummed up 30 retired off just 12 balls, with six boundaries, as his team beat the Bollywood Stars by three wickets.
Stars captain and another leggie, Liam Barbier, won the toss and his side were bowled out for 84 in 14.4 overs.
In umpiring the game, Poverty Bay Cricket staff coach Graham Hudson was impressed, not just by the skills on show but also by the competitiveness and greater game-sense of the players.
“Both teams were in the contest and tactics were being employed, with bowlers operating to specific fields for particular batsmen,” he said.
Barbier top-scored in the match, retiring for 31 off 25 balls from No.6.
Phoenix Pardoe-Crosby was the Stars’ next-highest scorer with 12, in at seven.
The Broncos’ best bowler was paceman Markus Gray, with 2-17 off 2.4 overs.
In the second innings, his elder brother David punished the bad ball as second-drop, No.3 Sam Briant having earlier set the standard for “getting on with it”. Briant hit four fours in his eight-ball innings of 20.
Barbier was the pick of the Stars’ bowlers with 2-8 off four but the Broncos won the game in exactly 13 overs.
He is solid.
Jack Whitehead-McKay’s unbeaten 54 from No.1 against the Auto Tyre Eagles was a great knock. The unassuming 13-year-old hit the bad ball to the boundary (two sixes, nine fours) but kept his composure — an excellent example for strokemakers such as first-drop Malsha Mahabalage (17) and No.4 Dylan Torrie (15) to follow.
Pups captain Hamish Swann won the toss, his team reaching 133-4.
Medium-pacers Jett Whittaker (1-15 off two overs) and Noah Torrance-Cribb were the Eagles’ best bowlers.
Torrance-Cribb then backed up his 1-21 off two with a high-quality innings of 47 retired in the run chase. He hit two sixes and seven fours off 30 balls from No.3. He has considerable all-round ability.
Opener Brayden Sycamore (30 in 28) found the rope five times, and the improvement he has shown as a cricketer this season is remarkable.
The Pups’ two most economical bowlers, in restricting the Eagles to 116-7, were Rhys Grogan (1-10 off three) and Swann (1-13 off two), with John Broad, Mahabalage and Lukas Fry also claiming a wicket.
Grogan caught the Eagles’ 10-year-old opening batsman Jonah Reynolds (three runs) at mid-on off Fry’s first ball but Fry was unlucky on the day. The left-armer has good pace and swing but fullness of length, with the ball coming on to the bat, can have a high cost on 45-metre boundaries.
Swann was pleased with the number of extras conceded by the Pups — 18 — as opposed to 39 by the Eagles. The Dragons conceded 24 to 30 by Girls’ High.