Kamo spinner David Armitt (left), along with a strong bowling unit, kept Chris Page and the rest of Maungakaramea to a low total at Kensington Park on Saturday. Photo / Tania Whyte
They didn't make it easy but Kamo are one step away from joining City in the club T20 final next week after winning their two Saturday games in the final over.
Kamo managed to chase down relatively low targets in their games against Kaipara Flats and Maungakaramea at Kensington Park to stay unbeaten as City also won their two Saturday games as well as their extra game on Friday against Whangārei Boys High School.
This round of games would stand as the first of the T20 competition after last weekend's round of six games was abandoned due to rain. Kamo play Onerahi in one of the two games next weekend and if they win, will go straight through to play City in the final.
In this weekend's morning game, Kamo had Kaipara on the ropes early with opening bowlers Nathan Parkes and Sean Daniels removing Kaipara's openers for just one run between them. It looked as though Kaipara were heading for a paltry total when Kamo skipper Ben Hyde removed Kyran Dill with a searing caught-and-bowled to leave the batting team 46 for 6 with half the game still to play.
However, Kaipara's big men came to the crease and hit the ball cleanly to reach a defendable score of 102, Liam Jones making 20, ending with two sixes before he was dismissed by Hyde, and Josh Cunis making a quick-fire 14. Parkes was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 12 off his four overs.
Things didn't come easy for Kamo as they began their chase as bowlers Cunis and Luke Beaven put the squeeze on Kamo's openers. With some aggressive fast bowling, Cunis was able to dismiss Kamo's No. 3 Caleb Boswell-Smith and No. 4 Hyde for 0. The wicket of Hyde was a real scoop for Kaipara who knew the value of having him back in the sheds.
With the team at 58 for 5, things were looking dire but in came No. 7 Bruce Martin who took the game deep and with 15 runs required off the final over, Martin hit three sixes, two coming off the final two deliveries of a Kyran Dill over to claim the nail-biting win.
Things weren't so stressful in Kamo's afternoon game against Maungakaramea despite Kamo needing the final over to score the three runs necessary to chase down the total of 105. Boswell-Smith and Dylan Clark scored 38 and 30 respectively take Kamo home.
"We obviously had a good day," Hyde said.
"A couple of strange, low-scoring games but both of them were good ones."
With the pitches going through a spell of bad weather and regular use, Hyde knew batting wouldn't be easy.
"We knew the wickets weren't going to be fantastic and they weren't quite as good as we hoped but they still produced a couple of really close games."
Hyde lauded Martin for scoring well on what was a slow pitch and against one of Northland's better bowlers in Dill who took four wickets in the match.
"[Dill] is a pretty good player, he won us the T20 tournament for Northland last year almost single-handedly so I wasn't too confident in us getting those 15 runs but it was pretty cool for Martin to hit those last two balls for six.
"It's always very nice to get a couple of wins even if you don't have a good day personally. We've got a big group of guys who are all good premier cricketers and it's been nice to see some success."
City also had a successful weekend after they progressed straight to the final with three wins against WBHS, Maungakaramea and Onerahi.
City played all three games at Cobham Oval with their first on Friday evening going the distance against WBHS. City needed runs off the final ball to chase the schoolboys' 124 for 8, wicket-keeper Callum Garden with an unbeaten knock of 62 saw City home in their 20 overs.
City defended both of their totals on Saturday, making 141 for 2 against Maungakaramea with openers Stacey Hyndman and Callum Gegg scoring 40 and 67 respectively. They would restrict their opposition to 132/9, winning by nine runs, Max Trimble taking 3 for 25 of his four overs.
City faced Onerahi in their afternoon game with Garden backing up his score from the day before with a well-compiled 56 to reach 130 for 5. Onerahi struggled to make inroads into City's total, losing wickets in regular intervals to reach 107 all out, Gegg taking three wickets.
In round's other games, Onerahi beat WBHS after making 140 for 4 with Cullen Lowe scoring an important 47 to get Onerahi to a good total. Lowe was put down by a WBHS boundary-rider earlier in his innings which would prove costly as they could only score 124 for 7, Lowe returning with the ball, taking two wickets and two catches.
Things didn't get much better for the schoolboys as they would fall to Kaipara in their afternoon game. Batting first, WBHS made 106 all out, Luke Trigg top-scoring with 31. Kaipara spinner Simar Virk did the damage with the ball, taking 3 for just 11 of his 3.4 overs.
Kaipara chased down the below-par total with 11 balls to spare with opener Kevin Forde scoring 43 to steer his side home.
Kaipara will play Maungakaramea on Saturday after the Kamo v Onerahi game on the Friday. These results will dictate who plays City in the final in January.