The Pups are going to need changes of pace, tight bowling and then some when they take on the Tairawhiti Women’s Cricket Club in two weeks.
Round 1 of the T30 league saw the TWCC beat the Old Boys’ Rugby Sharks by 153 runs, captain first drop Maddie Ashworth (88 not-out off 59 balls, 14 boundaries) and No.1 Grace Kuil with her unbeaten 66 from 61 at the heart of the win.
Former TWCC captain and Northern Spirit A all-rounder Kayley Knight said: “I was genuinely impressed by the girls’ performance — they played their shots and played very well.”
The Sharks bowled the eight-player TWCC out for 211 in 27 overs after Ashworth won the toss, OBR seamers Joel Kirkpatrick (1-14-4), Jack Holden (1-22-4) and Ben Langford (1-33-4) to the fore. Kuil (2-4-2), Alessandra Evans (1-6-3), Tegan Hayward (1-8-2.1 overs) and Ashworth (1-8-3) then led an in-form TWCC pace attack, as the Sharks were bowled out for 58 in 20.1 overs. Opener Dylan Worsnop and first-drop Tama Wirepa top-scored for OBR with eight runs — Wirepa facing the maximum 30 balls before retiring not-out.
The Ngatapa Knights bounced back from their 39 run T15-loss against TWCC to prevail by 72 runs against the Bollywood Stars. Knights co-captains George Gillies (30 from 34 at No.3) and Dylan Torrie (20 off 23 in 19 minutes) wielded the willow in great style — Ngatapa reaching 137-6-30 — having been put in to bat on ground No.3 by Stars captain Kelan Bryant. The game saw a brilliant turn at the bowling crease by left-arm spinner Riker Rolls: the Y7 took 3-12-5 including two maiden overs, 10 year-old teammate Marcus Gray also superb with 1-3-4, Manjot Singh (1-34-6) and Anikate Bandral (1-23-3) the other wicket-takers.
The Stars were bowled out for 65 in 16.3 overs, opener David Gray playing a fine hand (33 not-out off 32 balls), but younger brother and Ngatapa left-arm medium-pacer Jonathan Gray (2-3-2) would not be denied. He and Tom Rouse (2-6-2) received support from debutant Elenor Walsh (1-3-2), Jonah Reynolds (1-4-2), Marcus Bull (1-9-2) and Gillies (1-12-2.3 overs).
Gillies said: “We really tried to keep the energy and talking up; Elenor slotted in well with some consistent bowling. Riker was great value for Bollywood and David was solid with the bat for them, too.”