Northland's Chamodh Peiris (37) top scored with the bat, but it wasn't enough as Northland lost to Hamilton in the Northern Districts Senior Secondary Boys tournament in Gisborne. Photo/Paul Rickard
Bella Homes Northland have stumbled to a 58-run semifinal loss to Hamilton in the Northern Districts Senior Secondary Schoolboys tournament in Gisborne.
Northland won the toss and elected to bowl first at Harry Barker Reserve.
Hamilton started strongly, putting on a 46 run partnership before Conor Wilson (2-21) had skipper Max Gaskell caught and bowled for 15.
Fellow opener Ben Taylor nicked off three balls later off the bowling of Sean West (3-35) before things settled again.
Hamilton moved the score through to 90 before Northland made a triple breakthrough.
Hamish Kidd (3-38) took two wickets before Owen Arthur (1-17) caught Bodie Hodges off his own bowling to reduce Hamilton from 90/2 to 94/5.
In what was becoming the common theme of the innings, Hamilton recovered once again through William Kingsbury (17) and Nick Farrell (20), who put on 43 runs for the sixth wicket.
Northland again came back and took wickets in bunches, this time taking four wickets for 18 runs as West came back into the attack.
Hamilton looked certain to end their innings in the mid-150s at that point but numbers 10 and 11 Ben Morris-Brown (33 not out) and Cory Gabolinsky put on 39 for the last wicket to get Hamilton to a challenging score of 194.
Northland got off to a solid start with openers Chamodh Peiris (37) and Quinn Pooley (22) seeing off the new ball with little fanfare.
Their partnership passed 50 as Hamilton struggled to make inroads despite keeping Northland to under three runs an over.
The opening stand ended at 61 when Peiris was caught off the bowling of Eli Spadoni (2-29) by Hodges.
Spadoni and Hodges combined again four overs later to dismiss Pooley and leave Northland needing 118 from 23 overs.
From that point on, Hamilton had the upper hand as only wicket keeper Luke Trigg (33) stuck around for any major length of time.
Hamish Mellow (2-20) and Liam Calnon (3-27) ripped through the middle order as Northland's batsman between numbers 4 and 10 combined for just 16 runs.
Hamilton's fielding came to the fore as well as they dismissed Caleb Boswell-Smith (6) and Sean West (3) via run outs.
Number 11 Matt Kingi posted double figures to end the innings unbeaten on 11, but Northland came up well short in the 58-run loss.
Northland now face Bay of Plenty Coastlands, who they lost to in a six-run nail biter earlier in the tournament, in the third place playoff.