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Cricket
The good ones bounce back.
Bollywood High School Old Boys Pups captain Hamish Swann and his seven players defended 108 against the Bollywood Stars in Round 3 of the six-week nine-a-side colts cricket league at Nelson Park after he, as No.1 opening batsman, got a royal duck (first ball of the game).
He was bowled by Stars left-arm spinner Riker Rolls, who later said: “It didn’t do that much from around the wicket — just enough.”
Rolls (2-9 off 2 overs) and seamer Matthew van Zyl (1-1 off 1 over) were penetrative for the Stars, but against all odds HSOB reached 108-3 off 15 overs, No.5 Taye McGuinness (21 retired, not out) and Swann’s opening partner Oliver Egan (13 not-out) playing perhaps their finest hand of the season.
Swann’s focus never wavered: “I didn’t have time to think about how I got out. We had to concentrate as hard as we could in the field, to bowl well and save every run.” The Pups captain set a sterling example in that last regard: he ran three Pups batsmen out in a contest won on nerve. Stars captain No.1 Kelan Bryant (24) and first-drop David Gray (21) both struck four 4s before — after 18 balls — their compulsory batting retirement. Bryant and Rolls (1) put on 31 in 3.4 overs for the first wicket. Swann (1-8 off 3 overs, including a maiden over) and Gagandeep Singh (1-13 off 2 overs) may have been the Pups’ only wicket-takers, but Malsha Mahabalage (0-6 off 2 overs) and Taye McGuinness (0-11 off 3 overs) bowled tightly too, the Stars 93-6 off 15 overs at the end. No.7 Connor Starck (five runs) was run out by Swann off the last ball of the 15th over with Bryant — as the first retiree — next man in.
Well might the OBR Sharks grin.
Hitherto winless in both the Wednesday T15 league and T30 competition on Saturday, the gutsy Sharks beat the Hortigro Tairawhiti Women’s Cricket Club colts by three wickets. The Sharks bowled magnificently, dismissing the women — who had crushed the Stars in 6.4 overs on Saturday and the DNature Dragons in 5.3 overs last Wednesday — out for 50 in 9.2 overs. Kavindu Vithanage (2-8 off 1.2 overs), Ben Langford (2-9 off 2 overs), Dylan Worsnop (2-9 off 2 overs), Tama Wirepa (1-5 off 1 over) and Joel Kirkpatrick (1-11 off 2 overs) were the successful bowlers. TWCC captain first-drop Grace Levy (30 not-out, retired) off 27 balls was the only batter to make more than four runs in the first innings. The women lost four wickets with the score at 10.
Vithanage (10 not-out off 15 balls, batting at No.6) and No.5 Langford (nine from 18 balls, not-out, retired) were OBR’s leading run-scorers in a tense chase. Alessandra Evans (1-1 off 1 over), Levy (1-3 off 2 overs) and, in her first game of the season, Keeley Smiler (1-8 off 1 over), competed hard with the ball.
“Our young batting line-up had a tough match — the boys bowled well, in particular their three left-arm seamers (Vithanage, Jack Holden, Wirepa),” said TWCC coach Mel Knight. “Grace bowled well for us in the second innings but over-throws, wides and no-balls made life hard.”
They went one better.
The Alex Shanks-led DNature Dragons beat the Ngatapa Knights by five wickets to claim their first T30 win this season at the weekend and in R3 of T15, beat them by six wickets: the Sharks’ first T15 win. Shanks won the toss and the Dragons’ capable bowling attack dismissed Ngatapa for 45 in 13.3 overs. Nathaniel Fearnley, formerly of the Pups, took a big wicket, that of Knights captain No.7 George Gillies (11 off 14 balls, with two boundaries) — caught behind by ‘keeper Shanks. Fearnley (1-12 off 2 overs), Ky Bartlett (2-2 off 1.3 overs), Ari Robertson (2-4 off 2 overs), Bekko Page (1-8off 2 overs) and Teremoana Cummings (1-4 off 1 over) combined well with the ball: Fearnley and Page gave the attack real teeth, Bartlett, Robertson and Cummings complemented that with steady line and length.
Gillies top-scored for the Knights. He (1-8 off 1 over) and Marcus Bull (1-7 off 1 over) were then the only wicket-takers for Ngatapa in the second innings, as the Dragons wrapped things up with 46-2 off 6.5 overs. Shanks hit a six and two 4s in his 11-ball 19 not-out at second-drop, No.3 Fearnley running hard for 11 off 10. Shanks said: “It was great to have Nathaniel back — he played for us last season — and everyone contributed to the win. The game was played in a good spirit, too.”
Knights captain Gillies knows his team is capable of more. “DNature got us out quickly — for 45 runs — a solid bowling effort from them,” he said. “We can bat better than that. We also need to bowl more consistently and field tightly.”