Furlong Cup: Hawke’s Bay cricketers ready for Manawatū after winning start

Sam Cassidy made an important 50 in tricky conditions early on. Photo / Hawke's Bay Cricket Association

From afar, Hawke’s Bay’s innings and 102-run win over Horowhenua-Kāpiti looks routine, even unremarkable.

But when you dig a little deeper into the Furlong Cup clash at Donnelly Park in Levin, you find Hawke’s Bay actually did pretty well.

Hawke’s Bay like to bowl first and certainly would have on Saturday. The skies were grey and the pitch very green, making batting conditions tricky.

That was occasionally a recipe for disaster last summer. This time around, everyone got starts but, more than that, they kept the scoreboard ticking over.

A lot of work has been done with players on their “in between” game, meaning their ability to strike a better balance between defence and attack.

Sam Cassidy, at No 3, made 55, before Todd Watson joined Bayley Wiggins at 158-5.

The pair put on 181 until Watson was dismissed for 83. That left Wiggins 122 not out and Hawke’s Bay with about 30 overs to bowl before stumps on day one.

“Ideally we would’ve bowled first, but I think it was good that we got put in,” Hawke’s Bay captain Dominic Thompson said.

“Where we struggled last season was we didn’t bat well in the first innings when we got put in. It was a challenging wicket and those guys in the top four or five really did apply themselves.”

Wiggins and Watson are natural stroke-makers, but the team needed responsibility at that time. Having got themselves in, the pair became more expansive and it was only Watson’s dismissal 17 runs short of a hundred that prompted the declaration at 339-6.

With the ball, there were heartening signs from some of the newer bowlers. Horowhenua-Kāpiti’s batters came hard at Hawke’s Bay, but swing bowler Jed Greviile took three wickets in the hosts’ first innings of 151 and a further two as they were bowled out for 86 second time around.

Leg spinner Finn Reid finished the match with four wickets and fast bowler Fred Mowat took 4-11 in Horowhenua-Kāpiti’s second innings. Watson, who is the team’s bowling enforcer, picked up a slight quad niggle batting, which left Mowat to try to play that role.

Coach Christie van Dyk said before the match that developing a wicket-taking spinner and a quick bowler who can blast teams out were high on his priorities this summer and this was an encouraging start.

“Fred’s spell in the second innings was really good. I think it was eight overs and it was in the back end of that spell that he was able to take his four wickets and break open that middle order,” Thompson said.

“The first five overs were about trying to get guys bowled, lbw and caught behind and then he was still feeling good so we went to the short-ball plan.”

Throw in the 5-35 Angus Schaw took in the first innings and it was a good all-round bowling performance from new and experienced bowlers alike.

“Very happy with the weekend and it was nice to see guys who’ve been rewarded for club performances bringing that straight into the Hawke’s Bay side and continuing to perform,” Thompson said.

All of which prepares the team nicely to host Manawatū at Nelson Park this weekend.

“They’ve always been a good side and we’ve had some great matches against them over the years. They’re a strong bowling line-up, with guys who can bowl quickly and take wickets, and then they’ve got a good batting line-up as well,” Thompson said.

“It’ll be an important match going forward for the rest of the season.”

Meanwhile, there were wins for Napier Old Boys’ Marist, Napier Technical Old Boys and Central Hawke’s Bay in men’s club cricket Twenty20 matches.

Marist will be thrilled to beat Havelock North by eight wickets, while Christian Leopard’s 154 not out for Tech against Cornwall was the standout individual performance.

– This article is provided courtesy of Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association