Red Star?s upset win

Red Star's upset three-run victory over Greytown in the final of the Wairarapa Cricket Association's Umpires Cup one-day competition at Queen Elizabeth Park oval in Masterton on Saturday could not have been scripted better.
The limited-overs game was invented to provide a fair measure of entertainment and drama and while some of the cricket played was of below average quality no one could accuse this game of falling short in either of those cateogries.
Red Star probably thought they had not made good enough use of what were ideal batting conditions when, batting first, they posted a score of 186.
Expecially when it was taken into account that no fewer that 47 of the runs came from extras, including 26 wides
In fact, the bulk of the Red Star runs off the bat came from just two players, opener Daniel Stoneley who struck seven fours in his 47 and No.7 batsman Jarrod Watt who found the boundary eight times in his 46.
Stonely was involved in two worthwhile partnerships, 37 with fellow opener Corey Burling and 57 with first drop Joe Hull, while Watt was the aggressor in a valuable 28-run partnership for the last wicket with Carwyn Caffell.
Apart from the notable exception of former Wellington representative Glen Jonas this was anything but a memorable match for the Greytown attack.
Jonas came on at second change, grabbed his first wicket in his third over and went on to finish with the excellent figures of 5-30 from 10 overs.
His control of line and length was most impressive and none of the Red Star batsmen looked comfortable against him.
The Greytown innings got away to a bad start when experienced opener Mark Childs was caught and bowled by Jarrod Watt for three and then Red Star medium pacer Carwyn Caffell snared the wickets of three other key players, Jacob Ross (27), Willie Tatham, (11), and Seth Rance (35, including seven fours) to have the southerners 107-4.
That left Stars clearly in the box seat and with two more wickets falling with the score at 110 and others at 125, 128 and 130 they were practically celebrating a victory.
Then enter tail-enders Ewan Burt and Brian James and the drama reached fever pitch.
Aided and abetted by the Red Star bowlers serving up a number of wides and their fielders providing two or three unnecessary overthrows, they slowly but surely ate away at the lead and with still 14 balls to be bowled they required just three runs for the tie and four for the win.
At that stage the pendulum had swung full circle and the odds favoured a Greytown win but Red Star skipper Shay O'Gorman had other ideas.
Burt and James set off for a quick single, O'Gorman seized on the ball in the covers and threw the wickets down with Burt just short of his ground. He had made a fine 31 and in partnership with James who was left unbeaten on 12 their partnership was worth 53 enthralling runs.
Red Star used eight bowlers in all and while some of them struggled to keep the ball within the confines of the wide lines there were excellent contributions from Caffell (3-39), Watt (3-32) and spinner Aaron Wilson (3-19).
Scoreboard
RED STAR Stoneley lbw b Jones??..........47 C.Burling c Tatham b Rance?..6 Hull c Childs b Jones?.............15 T..Burling c Lyttle b Jones?....10 Governor b Jones?.....................0 Sigvertsen b Jones?...................1 Watt c James b Southey??.....46 O'Gorman b Burt??.................8 Wilson lbw James.??................1 Thompson??.............................1 Caffell not out?.......................?4 Extras??.47
Total: 186
Fall: 37, 94, 109, 111, 114, 134, 146, 154, 158, 186
Bowling: Rance 10-1-35-2, Burt10-0-53-1, Southey 3-0-18-0, Jones 10-4-30-5, Doherty 2-0-9-0, James 4-0-28-1.
GREYTOWN Childs c and b Watt.................?.3 Ross c C.Burling b Caffell?.....27 Tatham c T.Burling b Caffell.....11 Rance c C.Burling b Caffell..?.35 Lyttle c C.Burling b Wilson?..17 Dpherty c Watt b Wilson?.......11 Southey lbw b Wilson?..............0 Burt run out?............................31 Hodder c Governor b Watt?.....1 Jones b Watt?..............................1 James not out?..........................12 Extras: 35
Total: 183
Fall: 14, 41, 59, 107, 110, 110, 125, 128, 130, 183
Bowling: Watt 10-1-32-3, Caffell 10-0-39-3, Thompson 4-0-44-0, Wilson 10-1-19-3, Sigvertson 5-1-13-0, O'Gorman 3-0-9-0, Stoneley 4.4-0-14-0, T.Burling 2-0-6-0.