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CRICKET
They’re starting to get it together.
Poverty Bay boys’ primary representatives playing nine-a-side T30 and T15 Colts cricket at Nelson Park ahead of their opening game against Waikato Valley at Cambridge this Sunday have been busy in the past five days.
On Saturday, Bay boys’ primary representative captain Kelan Bryant thumped four sixes and two fours in his unbeaten 39 off 15 balls from No.7 as skipper of the Bollywood Stars in their game against DNature Dragons.
Bollywood High School Old Boys Pups captain and second-drop Hamish Swann faced 30 balls in his 29 retired against the Tairawhiti Women’s Cricket Club Hortigro junior colts.
Swann’s teammate and fellow opening bowler Rhys Grogan (2-17 off four overs) and Ngatapa Knights captain George Gillies (2-9 off two) performed well with the ball on Saturday.
In Round 3 on the artificial pitches, the Pups beat TWCC — to remain unbeaten with three wins from three games — by five wickets.
TWCC captain Grace Levy won the toss, chose to bat and made a run-a-ball 48 not out from No.7 with the support of second-drop Grace Kuil (23 off 26 balls) and Alessandra Evans (20 from 33 coming in at No.9).
Malsha Mahabalage (2-8 off 2.5 overs) joined Swann’s Poverty Bay teammates Grogan, John Broad (2-21 off four) and Taye McGuinness (1-10 off four) to hold the women to 134-8 in 24.5 overs.
In reply, the Pups reached 137 in 25.4 overs. Opener Oliver Egan retired on 22, having faced 30 balls.
Tegan Hayward (1-8 off three overs) and Savannah McGhee (1-12 off three) took wickets for TWCC.
The Ngatapa Knights beat the David File Decorators Old Boys Rugby Sharks by three wickets in Round 3 of T30.
Sharks captain Braden Sycamore won the toss and opted to bat first. The Sharks made 75-6 off 19.3 overs, Tama Wirepa being their only runscorer of note, hitting 19 runs from 24 balls, batting at No.4.
For the Knights, Jacob Douglas (1-5 off one over), Aiden Armstrong (1-9 off three) and Jack Searle (1-13 off two) all joined Gillies in the wickets column.
Gillies later hit two boundaries in his 15-ball 19 not out, batting at seven. His was the highest individual score for the Knights.
OBR left-arm wrist-spinner Kavindu Vithanage (4-16 off two) and seamer Joel Kirkpatrick (1-15 off 2.1) then combined to give Ngatapa an anxious moment or two before the Knights claimed victory off the first ball of the 13th over.
Kelan Bryant’s 39 not out was top-notch. His Stars teammate and opener David Gray’s 36 off 28 balls was also a very good knock but DNature Dragons skipper and first-drop Alex Shanks’s 54 retired was a special effort.
“Alex hammered the bad ball and scored off the good ones, too,” Bryant said.
“As batsmen, we like this season’s rule that you can’t get out off the first six balls you face; but when we’re bowling, we don’t like it much.”
Shanks won the toss and decided to field. The Dragons dismissed the Stars — who were a player short — for 123 in 18.3 overs.
Akira Makiri (2-2 off two overs), Jakeb Brown (1-2 off two), Ari Robertson (1-5 off two), Jett Whitaker (1-16 off 1.3) and Teremoana Cummings (1-27 off two) bowled well first up.
Gray and Bryant — at either end of the innings — providing the sternest resistance for the Stars.
In the Dragons’ innings, only Shanks and opening bat Whitaker (13) scored more than eight runs.
For the Stars, Gray (2-30 off five overs), Matt van Zyl (1-10 off three), Vincent Patrick-Page (1-15 off two), left-arm spinner Riker Rolls (1-17 off five), Connor Starck (1-19 off four) and Manjot Singh (1-29 off two) took wickets.
The Dragons won the match by one wicket in exactly 21 overs, finishing the game on 124-7.