Cricket: Hutt go home with lots to spare

Hutt Districts stand-in captain Troy Johnson (with trophy) celebrates with teammates. Photo / Duncan Brown

Hutt Districts Cricket Club took a shine to the balmy Hawke's Bay weather yesterday to claim the premier men's club Twenty20 bragging rights for the second time.

In an all-Wellington club affair, the Troy Johnson-captained side, who won the crown two years ago, beat 2012 champs Onslow Cricket Club by five wickets with 25 balls to spare in the final of the annual pre-season Kilbirnie Sports HBCA T20 Tournament.

Bowling first, the victors skittled Onslow for 100 in 19.5 overs before overhauling the total with 105-5 on a 24C day at Nelson Park, Napier.

Undefeated Hutt Districts started sedately to muster runs as opening batsman Johnson scored 31 before No4 Chander Ravi took charge with an unbeaten 58 from 32 balls, including six boundaries and three sixes, with the fall of two wickets.

"Finals are always like that and can be hard to chase but they bowled really well," said Johnson who slipped on the captain's armband in the final after regular skipper BJ Barnett injured his shoulder in the last pool game against Complete Flooring Napier Technical Old Boys (NTOB) yesterday morning.

"Chander batted really well and hit the balls cleanly," said the 18-year-old who revealed the weather in the capital was a shocker so his troops relished the grass wickets here.

"We love playing here because you don't get any better pitches anywhere else in the country," he said, adding they hadn't even started practising on grass at home.

They had had numerous ding-dong battles with Onslow over the summers so Hutt were happy to claim the T20 title.

Dane Hutchings was named the MVP of the tourney after amassing 74.05 points with opening batsman Troy Johnson second on 69.82 while NTOB allrounder Indika Senarathne was third on 66.39.

Hutchings, who took 5-18 from his four overs in the final at the miserly rate of 3.6 runs an over, also was the best bowler after taking 11 scalps at six runs an over but, with the tourney rules allowing a player to receive only one award, the silverware went to Phil Tunnicliffe (newcomers and 2014-15 defending T20 champions from Wellington Taita) who claimed seven wickets at 8.43 runs an over while Sean O'Connor (Onslow) also took as many victims but had a less thrifty rate of 10.57 runs an over.

Said Johnson: "Hutch bowled with speed and he was intimidating today. He ran in real hard."

A modest Hutchings said: "It was okay and the wicket was conducive to bowlers so we had a good time and it was a good win to the boys in the end.

"It's a good start because we have a new group this year so we're looking for ward to our Wellington premier men's club competitions," said the 29-year-old Wellington Firebird seamer who shifted to Hutt Districts this summer from North City after the latter were relegated last summer in the capital.

Former Firebird first-class captain Stephen Murdoch (Karori) took the batting honours with 149 runs with Johnson second on 130 while Firebird and ex-Central Districts Stag Barnett 129 although he played one fewer game.

HBCA chief executive Craig Findlay saw the irony in fantastic cricket weather after the tourney was postponed the previous weekend and saw the teams dwindle from 16 to eight as home club commitments took precedence.

"We'll be back to 16 next year on the last week of September," said Findlay, crossing his fingers for the weather gods to be smiling on the Bay then.