Hawke's Bay Batsmen Bayley Wiggins and Christian Leopard shake hands with Manawatu players as Manawatu accepted the defeat in their Hawke Cup challenge in Napier. Photo / Warren Buckland
Central Districts players Bayley Wiggins and Christian Leopard brought off a swashbuckling end to Hawke's Bay's first 2022 defence of New Zealand minor associations' cricket prize, the Hawke Cup.
Playing at Nelson Park, Napier, the pair hit 41 just 21 balls to bring up the three-day game's only century partnership, taking the home side to 292-3 in reply to Manawatū's 623-minute first innings marathon of 290 all out.
Wiggins hit only the second six of the match, off Arana Noema-Barnett, off the last ball he faced to finish on a match-high 72 not out, which included 9 fours and left Leopard to finish with a four, a two and a four off the last three balls from pace bowler Ray Toole to end on 46 not out, including 7 fours.
Starting the third and last day at Nelson Park at 61-0, Manawatū having batted first after Hawke's Bay captain Angus Schaw won the toss and elected to bowl on Friday, the holders had passed the halfway mark to reach 152-1 at lunch.
At the crease were opener, Jono Whitley, on 63, from 239 balls, and Brad Schmulian, on 48 from 85 balls after coming in when opener and all-rounder Will Clark was out for 34.
The openers' 78 runs together had been the biggest partnership of the match, but Whitley and new partner Schmulian then added 81 for the second wicket before Whitley was out for 68. Schmulian went on to make 64.
In temperatures which had been around 25deg C since play had resumed yesterday at 10.30am, Wiggins and Leopard had put on 64 in just 69 minutes for the fourth wicket as the Bay went to the mid-afternoon tea break at 251-3, needing just 40 to hold onto the trophy with a first innings win in the second defence since winning the Cup from North Otago in Oamaru 11 months ago.
The final flurry was in contrast to the second day that had produced just 167 runs, Manawatū being dismissed about three-quarters of an hour before the tea break, having batted more than half of the way through the game's nine sessions, in their first Cup match since defence in 2015,
Hawke's Bay started their chase batting nine overs for just a single run before the tea break, and the openers survived 42 overs to reach 61-0 at stumps, with Whitley on 29, and all-rounder Clark on 27.
The tale of the tape late in the day, after two days of fine weather, was in the results for Toole, who opened the bowling for Manawatū and went to stumps on the second day with 0-13 off 12 overs, including eight maidens, and captain Tim Richards, who had bowled six overs without conceding a run.
Earlier spin-bowler Schaw, who last month became the record-holder for the most matches for Hawke's Bay in representative cricket, finished the visitors' 156.1-over innings by trapping No 10 Manawatu bat Jack Harris leg before wicket, to end with the remarkable figures of 5-47 of 43.1 overs, which included 22 maidens.
In his next-most recent match for Hawke's Bay, Schaw had match figures of 11-41 in a Furlong Cup Zone 2 match against Wanganui earlier this month,
Resuming at 184-6 overnight, Manawatū were kept to just 58 runs from 40 overs in the morning session on Saturday, during which Schaw had figures of 1-9 off 16 overs, claiming the only further wicket to fall, that of rival captain Richards, also lbw.
The hero of Manawatu's elastic innings was No 7 bat Brynn Cleaver, with a 242-minute innings of 60 runs before being caught by Liam Dunning off the bowling of fellow paceman Ben Stoyanoff.
Opener Mason Hughes had scored 50 on the first day, and the two top scorers were supported with scores in the 30s from fellow opener Bevan Small, Curtis Heaphy in the middle order, and No 9 bat Toole stretching the tail before being caught and bowled – by Schaw – for 34.
The next-best of Hawke's Bay's six-man bowling attack was Clark with 2-30 off 24 overs, of which 13 were maidens.
Manawatū had claimed the right to a challenge by winning the Zone 2 elimination series (the Furlong Cup), also involving fellow Central Districts North Island associations Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Wanganui, Horowhenua-Kāpiti, and Taranaki.
Matches at the weekend and next weekend were also played to decide challengers from Zone One (Hamilton, Northland, Counties-Manukau, Bay of Plenty, Poverty Bay, Waikato Valley), Zone Three (Canterbury Country, Marlborough, Nelson, Buller) and Zone Four (Otago Country, North Otago, Southland, South Canterbury, Mid-Canterbury).
The next defence is expected to be at Nelson Park on February 11-13.
Manawatu 1st Innings
MG Hughes c Wiggins b Schaw 54
BJ Small c Weeks b Clark 30
MTMMJ Ave b Watson 4
AW Noema-Barnett b Schaw 9
CG Heaphy c Wiggins b Clark 37
TM McGrath c Leopard b Schmulian 20
BS Cleaver c Dudding b Stoyanoff 60
TJ Richards lbw b Schaw 11
RL Toole c & b Schaw 34
J Harris lbw b Schaw 11
RBJ Fulton not out 0
Extras (b 3, lb 16, w 1) 20
Total (10wkts, 156.1 overs) 290
Bowling:
LR Dudding 27 overs, 5 maidens, 79 runs, 0 wickets; BP Stoyanoff 30-9-62-1; TJ Watson 16-4-27-1; WJ Clark 24-13-30-2; AR Schaw 43.1-22-47-5; BD Schmulian 16-4-26-1.
Fall: 1-50 (BJ Small, 13.1 ov), 2-59 (MTMMJ Ave, 18.4 ov), 3-99 (AW Noema-Barnett, 40.3 ov), 4-108 (MG Hughes, 46.6 ov), 5-148 (TM McGrath, 77.4 ov), 6-179 (CG Heaphy, 91.5 ov), 7-204 (TJ Richards, 108.2 ov), 8-255 (BS Cleaver, 140.5 ov), 9-281 (RL Toole, 152.6 ov), 10-290 (J Harris, 156.1 ov).
Hawke's Bay 1st Innings
JD Whitley c Noema-Barnett b Harris 68
WJ Clark c Ave b Fulton 34
BD Schmulian c Ave b Toole 64
BL Wiggins not out 72
CK Leopard not out 46
Extras (b 1, lb 2, nb 5) 8
Total (3wkts, 114.3 overs) 292
Bowling:
RL Toole 28.3-14-62-1; J Harris 25-5-64-1; RBJ Fulton 12-3-39-1; TM McGrath 12-6-23-0; TJ Richards 18-8-46-0; AW Noema-Barnett 18-7-49-0; BS Cleaver 1-0-6-0.
Fall: 1-78 (WJ Clark, 50.1 ov), 2-159 (JD Whitley, 81.2 ov), 3-187 (BD Schmulian, 92.2 ov).
Result: Hawke's Bay won on the first innings.