Cricket: Hawke’s Bay win by 10 wickets in Hawke Cup warm-up

Hawke's Bay cricketers Toby Findlay (left) and Liam Dudding get a weather-break just after the Central Districts A team's match started in Napier on Tuesday, and two days after they featured in Hawke's Bay's win over Horowhenua Kāpiti in Levin. Photo / Warren Buckland

The Hawke’s Bay men’s cricket team started off their 2023-2024 season in dominant fashion with close to an innings win over Horowhenua Kāpiti in Levin on the weekend.

Dismissing the home side for 129 and 139 sandwiching their own 267 all-out in a Central Districts Furlong Cup first-round match, Hawke’s Bay needed just two runs in their second innings to claim victory by 10 wickets, with opener Ben Stoyanoff hitting the second ball from bowler Nibu Jose to the boundary to finish the game.

Horowhenua Kāpiti chose to bat first when the game started on Saturday, and made it to 93 for the loss of just two wickets before a capitulation which saw the last eight wickets fall for just 37 more runs, including 4-10, all bowled, in a spell of just four overs and four balls by right-arm medium-pacer Toby Findlay.

The Hawke’s Bay innings was teetering at 92-4 but was corrected with the captain’s knock of 78 from Angus Schaw and 71 from Dominic Thompson, the pair featuring in a partnership of 101 before Schaw departed after facing 97 balls and hitting seven fours.

Thompson survived two other partners before completing a 117-minute innings of two sixes and five fours, at 263-8 amid the loss of the last four wickets for just 10 runs - all claimed by the home team’s opening bowler Carter Andrews, who finished with 4-47.

Brett Johnson was the destroyer in Horowhenua-Kāpiti’s second innings, claiming home-side top-scorer Prabodha Arthavidu caught and bowled for 46 at 108-3, starting the spiral which saw the last eight wickets fall for 31 runs. Johnson finished with 5-27 off nine overs, while Jayden Lennox finished with 3-4 to go with his first-innings haul of 3-27. William Clark claimed three catches to go with one in the first innings.

The result was a confidence-booster ahead of Hawke’s Bay’s next match, a November 10-12 Hawke Cup challenge against Canterbury Country in Rangiora.

The challenge was postponed from last summer because of the impact on Hawke’s Bay of Cyclone Gabrielle, and is Canterbury Country’s fourth defence.

It’s revenge time for the Bay, who were unceremoniously divested of the cup when dismissed in each innings for less than 100 by Canterbury Country last November in Napier and beaten by an innings and 29 runs. Canterbury Country have survived three challenges since becoming holders with victory by an innings and 52 runs against North Otago in Ōamaru in February 2021.

The Bay are well-equipped, with eight of last weekend’s team having played at higher first-class levels, with five others away playing a Plunket Shield match for Central Districts which started in Nelson on Saturday. It was scheduled for four days but ended a day early, at about 7pm on Monday.

With defending champions the Stags on the ropes, Wellington claimed an extra half-hour, which proved enough to wrap up Central Districts’ second innings and win by 172 runs.

Batting first, Wellington scored 201 then dismissed CD for 169 and moved into a controlling position with 324 in the second innings. A target of 357 in a day and a half was becoming distant with CD at 58-3, and they were dismissed for 184.

Central, who beat Auckland by an innings first up, face their next Plunket Shield match against Otago in Dunedin, starting next Monday.

There was no rest for such players as Findlay, who last month helped the Hawke’s Bay Turkeys win the national indoor cricket title in Auckland.

He and fellow Hawke’s Bay player Liam Dudding opened the bowling for Central Districts A, which featured eight Hawke’s Bay players, against Wellington A when a three-day match started on Tuesday at Nelson Park, Napier.

The onset of rain had stopped play after just three overs.