Poverty Bay batters give glimpse of art

LEADING THE WAY: Nathan Trowell led Poverty Bay’s efforts on Day 3 of the Northern Districts Emerging Rangatahi under-19 cricket tournament at Harry Barker Reserve yesterday. But it came at a cost. Trowell broke a finger while batting in a 50-overs clash with Hamilton but continued before being dismissed for 47 when a deserved half-century was in sight. He anchored the home side’s score of 126 which Hamilton comfortably chased down in the 26th over for an eight-wicket victory. PB were back in 50-overs action today against Bay of Plenty Lakelands. The tournament, featuring eight teams in the ND catchment including an ND Invitation side, finishes tomorrow.

Batting is at once a science, a business and an art.

Its art lies in footwork and shot selection; the business is to make as many runs as possible as quickly as possible; and the science is technical, execution.

And yesterday morning a 72-run second-wicket partnership between Poverty Bay opener Nathan Trowell (47) and Luke Fisher (25) at the Northern Districts Emerging Youth Cricket Tournament gave a fair glimpse of the science, business and art of batting.

Trowell has now joined teammate Kelan Bryant on the injury list — both have broken fingers —but before that, Trowell was playing as assured and as positive a knock as he has in the past three seasons. He played a classic leg glance for four, cut the short delivery to great effect and used his feet when given width.

Bay captain Cohen Loffler also made 20 from No.4 in the first 50-over game of the tourney but tigerish off-spin from Liam Hayman (2-18 from 10 overs) and Daniel Kibby 2-15 from seven) stifled the home team’s progress.

Hamilton skipper Lucky Reddy won the toss on Harry Barker Reserve No.4, bowled the Bay out for 126 in 45 overs and lost only two wickets in the run-chase of 25.1 overs.

Tall Hamiltonian opener Angus Reeves made 45 and first drop Aman Awasthi, 43 not out.

Poverty Bay’s golden moment in the field was a sharp catch in the gully by Seb Wilson off speedster Bekko Page to dismiss Reeves’s opening partner, Rohan Gosai (7).

Victorious coach Zac Corban, whose crew lost their opening game — a T20 fixture against Waikato Valley — by 10 runs, said: “We tied Poverty Bay down in the middle of their innings and in terms of catches, we held a few and put a few down, yet we’ve now won four in a row.”

Northern Districts Emerging Youth Cricket Tournament, Harry Barker Reserve, Day 3,

50 overs —

Round 5

Bay of Plenty Coastlands 269-9 (Spencer Wills 72, Harsh Patel 64, Isaac White 46no, Darcy Collett 25; Reilly Benefield 2-26, Flynn Morey 2-49, Benji Bell 2-49, Max Makeham 2-57) beat Waikato Valley 147 (Jake Morey 39, Cameron O’Leary 31, Xavier Bell 25; Harry Burns 4-22, Gus Tustin 2-29).

Counties-Manukau 204-3 (Fraser Farrell 67no, Tayden Smit 52, James Kingham 29no, Rikesh Patel 24; Andrew Friskney 1-22, Tom Yetsenga 1-51) beat Bay of Plenty Lakelands 202-8 (Sean Gapes 58, Cohen Stewart 50; Oscar Anderson 3-25, Finn Williams 2-29).

Hamilton 128-2 (Angus Reeves 45, Aman Awasthi 43no) beat Poverty Bay 126 (Nathan Trowell 47, Luke Fisher 25; Daniel Kibby 2-15, Liam Hayman 2-18).

Northland 267-8 (Sanchit Chopra 65, Brady Wright 63, Nick Byles 25, Maz Saunders 22, Connor Jollivet 20; Depp Bolingford 2-40, Jake Riley 2-40) beat ND Invitation 156-7 (Logan Murray 55, Abraham Wolland 40; Lucas James 2-24).