Cricket: Feat not repeated

Northland Secondary Schools player Liam Jones delicately caresses a shot while standing on his tip-toes against Counties Manukau.

The Northland Senior Secondary Schools side has received a first-hand lesson that history never repeats.

Achieving a nail-biting win versus Counties Manukau on Sunday, the feat couldn't be repeated as the curtain came down hard in the side's second 50-over match against the visiting team on Monday.

Starting with a bang, the Northland A team's bowlers put on a startling display to restrict Counties Manukau to 116 runs on day one.

Managing 3-25, Caleb Boswell-Smith helped make a dent on Counties' total, as did Hamish Kidd who managed 2/12.

Chasing down the small total, Northland didn't fare as well as they could have. While Matt Lobb scored 33 runs, the Northland side lost a stack of wickets in their pursuit, sitting 76/8 at one stage with a loss on the cards.

However, No10 Jarod Ross made a nice 14 and No11 Dylan Lynch hung around with a valuable 3 not-out to support Caleb Boswell-Smith - who carried the team home for a win with a gutsy knock of 26 not-out.

Lining up for their second match, Northland's luck ran dry.

A higher scoring affair compared to the first match, Counties A scored 186 runs on day two.

With Northland's Boswell-Smith (3-23), Sean West (2-23), Matt Lobb (2-34) and Quinn Pooley (2-25) leading the bowling stats, a more daunting task lay in wait for the batters.

Struggling to back up their heroics from day one, Northland A succumbed to Counties, only managing 120 runs.

Leading the scoring for Northland, Liam Jones hit 47 while Caleb Boswell-Smith notched 24.

Northland's Senior Secondary School B team also had a mixed bag of results, with one win and one loss to Counties B.

Putting on 266 runs - which included an 88 not-out from Luke Pille, 55 runs from Dante Mitchell, and 30 to Connor Wilson - Northland produced a good total in the first innings of the first encounter.

But Counties B came from behind in fighting fashion to win, 267/8, on the last ball of the match.

Northland B made amends in their second match, scoring 241 (Lewis Miller 51, Cullen Lowe 41, Luke Pille 38, Sean West 25) to beat Counties B, who only managed 120.

Shutting Counties down via a contained bowling effort, Northland B's Connor Wilson managed 3-9, Cullen Lowe 3-30, and Rajesh Singh 2-15.