CONSISTENT: Havelock North batsman has been unbeaten in five consecutive knocks at premier club and HB rep level. PHOTO/FILE
IN cricket, no vernacular comes across louder and clearer than the sound of willow middling leather in a park during summer.
It's a dialect Bayleys Real Estate Havelock North CC batsman Bradley Schmulian is becoming quite familiar with since he moved down from Auckland to push for a berth in the Devon Hotel Central Districts Stags squad.
On Saturday, Schmulian scored 159 not out at No 3 to spearhead Havelock North to a 152-run, bonus-point victory over The Station Napier Old Boys' Marist (NOBM) in the third round of the Property Brokers-sponsored limited-overs competition at Anderson Park.
His bolshy knock, including 18 boundaries and a six from 152 balls after he occupied the crease for 177 minutes, helped propel the villagers to the top rung of the table after three rounds, displacing round-two leaders NOBM.
But wind the clock back and you'll find Schmulian has been unbeaten in five innings - 57 not out for his club, 118 not out for the Pay Excellence Hawke's bay men's senior representative men's team against Poverty Bay for the Kirk Cup, 70 not out for the Bay men against Horowhenua-Kapiti in the first Furlong Cup-qualifying match for the right to challenge for the Hawke Cup and an unbeaten 66 for Havelock North in a prem club Twenty20 affair a fortnight ago.
"He's the classiest batsmen I've seen at prem club level in many years in Hawke's Bay," was the verdict of Havelock North coach Derek Stirling, after they won their third game on the trot following a 110-over match defeat.
"Brad's passionate, driven and needs to keep doing what he's does," said Stirling of the 26-year-old right-hander who epitomised the work ethics required to attain one's goal.
Schmulian came in at first drop in the third ball of Havelock North's innings on Saturday after opener Mitchell Hammond departed for a boundary to help post a daunting 272-7 from 50 overs.
The former New Zealand international said South Africa-born Schmulian had already racked up 600 runs in a rain-interrupted summer.
"I'm sure the Stags selectors are watching him closely," said Stirling.
In reply, NOBM could only muster 118 runs with former Black Cap Mathew Sinclair scoring 44 runs at No 3 and opener Jesse Singh adding 40 while the rest of the batsmen's figures resembled the receipt of a bargain-basement supermarket.
Stirling said Singh also was consistent with the bat and deserved his spot in the Napier v Hastings emerging players' match yesterday at Nelson Park.
"CD's Ben Wheeler bowled 5 overs, 2 maidens for 42 runs and 40 of those runs came from Jesse's bat," he said of Wheeler who is in the wider Black Caps one-day squad.
CD Stags coach Heinrich Malan had released all his players for club cricket after their four-day Plunket Shield match against the Wellington Firebirds at the Basin Reserve was abandoned due to the Kaikoura earthquake and the inclement weather that followed in Wellington although it seemed as if the bowlers were asked not to bend their backs too much for fear of injuries.
In other matches on Saturday, Heretaunga Building Society Cornwall CC walloped Ruahine Motors Central Hawke's Bay by 177 runs at Forest Gate Domain, Ongaonga.
Opener Ben Wilson top scored for Cornwall with 78 runs while No 4 Angus Smith contributed 64, Irish international Graeme McCarter scored 56 runs at No 5 and veteran Jono Hall added 35 at No 6 for a don't-argue total of 313-8 in 50 overs.
In reply, CHB stuttered to 136 all out in 37.2 overs with no one really keen to occupy the crease for long.
Stags squad member Liam Dudding took a five-wicket bag while McCarter and Hall took two scalps each and the latter was almost unplayable.
At Nelson Park, Big Barrel Napier Technical Old Boys CC (NTOB) snuck home by a wicket against You Travel Taradale CC.
The hosts won the toss and had Taradale 190 all out with 25 balls to spare.
NTOB skipper Liam Rukuwai and Sri Lankan import Indika Senarathne took three wickets each.
The hosts overhauled the target with 194-9 and 22 balls to spare.
Stags allrounder Jesse Ryder was unbeaten on 56 at No 3 and opener Josh Paerau added 40.
CD left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel showed his class with 6-19 from 10 overs, including two maidens.
Several players, such as Christian Leopard, Matt Edmondson, Senarathne and Dudding, will compete from today in a four-way provincial tourney in Taupo for CD A while the Stags host the ND Knights at Nelson Park in round five of the Plunket Shield.