Marist captain Pritpal Singh led the way with a magnificent 163. Photo / HBCA
What happens next is up to Cornwall.
The team, and its captain Bayley Wiggins, were the talk of Hawke’s Bay premier men’s club cricket on Saturday night.
Having bowled and caught heroically to try to secure an outright result in their two-day clash with Napier Technical Old Boys at Nelson Park, Cornwall surprised many people by declining an opportunity to chase 126 off 16 overs on the final evening.
Instead, the two teams shook hands and Cornwall left with first innings points having replied with 291 to Tech’s 215.
The match could have petered out on day two, given Tech showed no inclination to set Cornwall a fourth-innings target. Instead, Cornwall bowled with vigour and accuracy to dismiss Tech second time around for 201 and potentially set up a thrilling finale.
Cornwall’s openers rushed inside to get their pads on, Tech’s bowlers and fielders warmed up and then suddenly everyone walked off the field without a ball bowled.
“We just decided, I guess, to not give them any satisfaction,” Wiggins explained afterwards.
“I back all the boys. I’m very proud of our efforts and I don’t want to see any smiles on Tech faces. We deserve that day.
“We got 20 wickets in two-day cricket, which doesn’t happen much.”
Wiggins wanted that to be Cornwall’s abiding memory from the day, not potentially limping to the close of play a few wickets down having not been able to threaten the 126 required to win.
In different circumstances, maybe Cornwall makes a different decision. But at this stage of the team’s evolution, Wiggins felt enough had been achieved.
He knows others, including his Hawke’s Bay representative teammates, will critique this decision but he’s not bothered.
“I think we’re pretty determined. Especially among the boys around the Hawke’s Bay squad; Cornwall are seen as huge underdogs and there’s talk around us getting the wooden spoon already and we’re sick of that quite frankly,“ Wiggins said.
“I’ll tell you for a fact, we’re working harder than any other team this year. We’re working our arses off and it’s going to change.
“We’ll just keep working and day by day we’ll prove them wrong.”
For Tech, it was a rare occasion where they were on the rack. Injuries and unavailabilities, as well as the novelty of trying to bat out a draw, meant the match was very much a learning experience.
One player who will have gained a lot from the opportunity was 18-year-old Luke Pawson. He’s already played alongside older brothers Samuel and Charlie in Tech’s premier side, but this match was the first time he’d bowled.
Pawson took a hat-trick to wrap up Cornwall’s innings, emulating the deeds of father Michael who claimed two hat-tricks during his illustrious career for Tech.
This was the first time two-day cricket had been part of the competition since the 2009/10 season and the standard of play and competitiveness of the matches more than justified the decision to reintroduce that form of the game.
Given the long weekend, the matches were staged on Friday and Saturday, giving everyone a full appreciation of the rigours of two days in the field.
It also meant huge satisfaction for Havelock North and Central Hawke’s Bay, who both secured outright wins in their respective matches at Nelson Park.
“In an overall sense, I thought it was pretty cool seeing all the games go to the last session,” CHB captain Dominic Thompson said after his team’s five-wicket win over Napier Old Boys’ Marist.
“Our guys would’ve learnt a lot, but also this was a bit unique in that the other two-dayers are Saturday-Saturday not Friday-Saturday, so you can still play one day of cricket and have a week off.”
The playing conditions stipulate a maximum 70 overs in each team’s first innings, but overs are unlimited in the second.
CHB, led by Thompson’s 115, made 238 first time around, then bowled NOBM out for 111. That’s when things got interesting.
Asked to follow on, NOBM made 321 in 90.1 overs, as CHB’s bowling resources dwindled. Bowlers are limited to a maximum 20 overs per innings while, in CHB’s case, fast bowler Fred Mowat was on additional load restrictions imposed by Central Districts.
Leg spinner Finn Reid, who took 5-25 in NOBM’s first innings, got through his 20 overs relatively early in Marist’s second innings, leaving Thompson with a bit of a juggling act to perform.
“We were getting into some dangerous territory and some guys were getting their first bowl for the club,” Thompson said.
That was in large part because of the magnificent innings of 163 from Marist captain Pritpal Singh.
“I felt really good and just stuck to my plan to bat to lunch. Then it was bat ‘til tea and just keep batting and batting and batting,” Singh said.
“Rotate the strike, hit the bad balls and don’t sway from that.”
Singh hit 22 fours and two sixes in his 202-ball stay, to set CHB 190 to win. Thompson finished 60 not out, as CHB got there relatively comfortably, but not before Singh had taken 4-52.
“I couldn’t be more proud. To get a hundred and a four, what more could you ask for?,” Singh said.
“But I’m also absolutely shattered and I’m going for an ice bath.”
Thompson captained Hawke’s Bay last summer and certainly liked what he saw from Singh over the two days at Nelson Park.
“He was very good. I’ve heard a lot of people say he’s an impressive cricketer, but I hadn’t played him too many times,” Thompson said.
“He’s a competitor and he was competing right up until we got that final run [to win the match]. But, yeah, his innings was pretty special.”
Havelock registered a very commendable four-wicket outright win over Taradale, having conceded a 10-run first innings lead to Taradale.
Taylor Bettelheim made 85 in Havelock’s first innings of 259, before 140 not out from Sachin Jayawardena saw Taradale post 269/7 in their 70 overs.
The game then could’ve gone nowhere, but for the determination and accuracy of Havelock’s second innings bowling. Spinners Kane Addison and Sam Cassidy each took four wickets as Taradale was bowled out for 133.
That left Havelock needing 143, which captain Addison got them to with a straight six off Vance Morris with six overs left in the day’s play.
“I’m seriously happy with that win. We lost the first session this morning and to bounce back this afternoon and win the last two sessions shows the sort of character we have, with a few players away,” a beaming Addison said.
“Our plan was to set some aggressive fields and try and set some kind of game up and then we got Sachin and Jacob [Cotter] out early doors and after that the batters tried to shut up shop and they weren’t sure how to play.
“Guys tried to play defensively and they got out and set us a score to win.”
The chase wasn’t without its challenges, especially after Cassidy holed out for 33. That left Addison as the man who would have to see Havelock home.
“I was just thinking ‘keep yourself out there’. The longer I stay out there, the better chance we’ve got,” said Addison after finishing 19 not out off 51 balls.
“To play two full days of cricket and come out with an outright win after losing on the first innings is really satisfying.”
CHB leads the overall competition after two rounds, followed by Havelock and Tech. The teams revert to 50-over cricket this Saturday.
- This article is provided courtesy of Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association.