Six brings up win for Gisborne Boys’ High in Poverty Bay Senior B T20 club cricket

Only one Poverty Bay Senior B T20 game was played on Saturday - Gisborne Boys' High Second XI defeating Horouta Presidents by five wickets.

Not much beats hitting a six to bring up your team’s first win for the season.

Matthew Langford cleared long-on from the bowling of spinner Clarence Campbell to bring up a five-wicket win to Gisborne Boys’ High School Second XI over Moshim’s Spice Te Waka Horouta Presidents.

Batting at No 7, Langford struck the final blow three balls into the 15th over of the Round 3 Senior B T20 clash at Harry Barker Reserve on Saturday.

The 14-year-old had earlier hoisted Tony Buechler over square leg for six and hit a pull shot behind square for four during his 10-ball knock of 19.

He shared a match-winning partnership of 24 for the sixth wicket with left-hander Pranash Senthooran (7).

The pair showed maturity in seeing GBHS home against a Horouta crew under Riley Horsfield.

Boys’ High skipper Kobe Donnelly won the toss and chose to bowl on HBR 2.

Senthooran, by technique and temperament an opening batsman, applied himself admirably to life in the middle order on a weekend that saw a number of batsmen lose their wicket when not under scoreboard pressure.

Another leftie, 13-year-old Bihandu Withanage (10), at No 3, impressed with classy drives and scored in double figures at Senior B level for the first time.

GBHS dismissed Te Waka for 65 in 14.4 overs.

Finnbar Whitfield, on at fourth change, took two wickets for six runs off two overs. He went through the defences of Matthew Kotuhi (2) with the first ball of his spell.

Fellow medium-pacer Langford, bowling first change, nabbed 2-18 in 3.4 overs to cap a strong all-round match.

Left-hander Senthooran Thedchanamoorthy topped Horouta’s scoring list with 16 at first drop and looked dangerous before he got a leading edge to a Whitfield delivery and was caught by Cody McMurray.

Lachlan Smith held on to a sharp chance in the gully to dismiss opener Buechler from the bowling of off-spinner Donnelly (1-17-3).

Te Waka’s most productive partnership was Thedchanamoorthy and Daniel Walters (11) - 31 for the second wicket.

The innings closed when Langford bowled Campbell (2).

It was the only game of the Senior B round. HSOB Presidents defaulted to Pioneer Ngatapa, who lead the competition on 12 points from HSOB (8), GBHS (4) and Horouta (0).