Turner joins honours board

HONOURS BOARD FEAT: Pirates and Poverty Bay medium-pace bowler Mitchell Turner took 6-68 against Counties Manukau in Manurewa at the weekend. File picture by Paul Rickard

PIRATES medium-pace bowler Mitchell Turner produced a magical spell of bowling to take six wickets for 68 runs off 19 overs to earn a place on the Poverty Bay representative cricket honours board.

But it was not enough to stop Counties Manukau beating the Bay by nine wickets in a two-day Fergus Hickey game in Manurewa at the weekend.

Poverty Bay batted first and were all out for 100 . . . not what coach Lance Cairns was looking for. Cairns, in the first year of a three-year programme to rebuild the team and make them competitive, had said he wanted the batsmen to occupy the crease for long periods and not give their wicket away.

However, after new skipper Danny Gibbs was dismissed with the score at 15, the Bay lost the wickets of David Salmon and Sam Singh for the addition of only 13 runs. Scott Tallott and opener Dion Joll revived the innings with a 23-run partnership before Tallott was out for 21 off 24 balls in 25 minutes.

Robbie Tallott, in his last game before going to Otago University, and Alex Clare followed shortly after, and when Joll departed the Bay were 76-7.

Joll top-scored with 29 off 90 balls in 120 minutes. Gary Singh ensured the tail wagged, scoring 17 off 24 balls. Scott Johnson, 4-30, and Ollie Pringle, 3-27, were the chief destroyers.

Turner then gave his side a fighting chance when he removed the first three batsmen before Counties Manukau got past 34 runs. But a 63-run stand for the fourth wicket and a 70-run partnership for the sixth enabled Counties Manukau to reach 195. Gibbs chipped in with 2-14.

Although the Bay improved in their second dig, scoring 160, a lead of 65 was never going to trouble the home side, who reached their target for the loss of one wicket. Clare led the Bay charge with 48 off 110 balls in 144 minutes with Sam Singh the next best batsman on 36 off 44 in 54 minutes.

Turner capped a solid game with an unbeaten 22. That included a last-wicket stand of 24 with Blake Taylor, who scored five runs before being run out on his Bay debut.

The Bay’s next game is in two weeks, at home to Hamilton, followed by their last rep game this season, away to Northland.