Hawke’s Bay starts new senior men’s cricket era with first Hawke Cup defence

Hawke’s Bay has successfully started a new Hawke Cup senior men’s minor associations cricket era with a first innings win over Central Districts neighbour Manawatu amid a range of triumphs and jitters at Nelson Park, Napier.

Bay skipper Angus Schaw won the toss on Friday and chose to field, his side dismissing the challengers for 198, his own side then batting through some of the tensest moments the game can throw up before being all-out for 249 to take control of the game on Saturday afternoon, and the game ended after Manawatu declared at 251-9 on Sunday.

Amid it all, front-line Hawke’s Bay bowler Liam Dudding claimed 11-wickets, falling just one short of a fourth six-wicket bag in consecutive innings over the last fortnight, wicketkeeper Bayley Wiggins claimed eight dismissals, just one short of a Hawke’s Bay record, and No 10 and 11 bats Toby Findlay and Ben Stoyanoff staged a match-saving last-wicket partnership of 55, in which 43 balls faced by Stoyanoff derived not a single run.

For the record, Dudding took 6-56 off 18.5 overs, scored 20 runs in an important nightwatchman’s bat which went 30 minutes into the second day, and then took 5-84 in Manawatu’s second innings, deprived of another six-wicket bag only by the declaration.

Of other note, Brad Schmulian scored 60 in Hawke’s Bay’s first innings, an assured performance which ended with just one run after lunch on Saturday when the punters were forecasting a record 11th century for the Bay.

His dismissal precipitated the demise which saw Stoyanoff and Findlay coming to together at 194-9, needing four runs to avoid Manawatu possibly walking off with the silverware based on a first innings triumph, and returned to the pavilion 77 minutes of cricket later with Stoyanoff out for no score, Findlay not out on 58, and the pair claiming the second-biggest last-wicket Hawke’s Bay Senior men’s representative partnership in history.

Putting Hawke’s Bay back into the box-seat, Findlay scored all-but one of the runs in the partnership, the other being a leg bye, giving his side a first innings end at 249, with a lead of 51 runs.

The three-day match, a near first-class quality line-up with 14 from the two twelves having played for the Central Districts Stags, began in fine weather on Friday, had rain threatening but not happening on Saturday, and ended just befiore rain started on Sunday afternoon.

It started in an air of anticipation with South Africa-born Schmulian having a week earlier equalled the record for the most centuries for Hawke’s Bay, which had been held alone by Australia-born 2001-2913 representative James De Terte.

With Manawatu all out, the home side was 30-2 at stumps, with Schmulian at the crease joined by Dudding to help hold the fort, when he could have been forgiven for saying “No” and staying in the pavilion after his effort helping put Manawatu away earlier in the day.

The 29-year-old Dudding, who has played 16 matches for Central Districts across the three platforms, has been a nemesis for Manawatu, having a best for Hawke’s Bay of 7-16 against Manawatu five years ago.

He survived the first half-hour of the resumption under a cloudy sky on Saturday morning before being bowled by Manawatu front-line bowler and Central Districts representative Bevan Small, who eventually finished with 6-66, the other notable performance for the visitors being Black Cap Dane Cleaver’s 129 not out in their second innings.

It was the first defence since the Bay regained the Cup by beating Canterbury Country in Rangiora in November. The next defence on March 9-11 is expected to be against Counties Manukau.