Cricket: Geyser JPC Old Boys and Taupō Old Boys to contest Lakeland Cricket final

After three months of intense competition, Geyser John Paul College Old Boys and Taupō Old Boys will contest the Lakeland Senior Reserve 40 Over Cricket final tomorrow.

In the semifinals last week, Geyser JPC went up against club mates Geyser Western Heights High School Old Boys.

Geyser WHHS batted first and finished on 205/8 from their 40 overs. The O'Donoghue brothers did the bulk of the damage with Gordon scoring 62 not out and Joe contributing 40 runs.

Geyser JPC were led to victory by Param Singh, who is in sublime form at present. He scored 114, his second century this season, to help his side to 205/8.

Geyser City Cricket president Kane Vanner, who plays for Geyser JPC, said the semifinal was another hotly contested clash between the two sides.

"It was a real battle. Param has been excellent this season, he's setting the record books alight - he's scored over 700 runs already with a game to go. He's been a key challenge for a number of teams, right throughout the season.

"It has been a team effort though, we've had some really good contributions from a number of players - like Liam Kelly with a hundred last week as well."

Vanner said the team were "really excited" to be playing in another final.

"We're obviously pretty chuffed to have a Geyser team in the final for the second year in a row, Western Heights last year and JPC this year. It would've been fantastic to have both teams in the final, but that's just the luck of the draw when you get to that stage of the competition.

"Finals cricket is always about controlling the emotions and making sure you don't panic - I think that's the key. It would be huge for the club to get a win."

Meanwhile, in the other semifinal, Taupō took on the table-topping Bay of Plenty Indians who beat them convincingly in the round robin. It appeared the Taupō side learned from that loss as they romped home to a four-wicket win.

BOP Indians batted first and were bowled out for just 97 runs, which Taupō chased down for the loss of four wickets.

Taupō captain Joel Rajek said playing in a final for the first time in recent years was exciting, especially as 2019 is the club's 50th anniversary.

"We're pretty excited, it's bloody awesome. We've picked up a couple of new players this season, who have fit into the team really well, and we're just playing as a team. Everybody trusts each other, it's just a good bunch of guys."

He said beating BOP Indians in the semifinal was "unreal".

"On the way there we talked about how we'd go about it and we knew they were really good at chasing scores. Our batting has been good this year but the bowling has been the harder part for us. We knew if we could get that right, we'd be sweet and we did - the boys bowled brilliantly.

"That gives us huge confidence going into this weekend. We just have to play as a team, as we have been doing. It would be huge for us to win, especially for the old guys at the club. It would be great to do it for them."

The final between Geyser JPC and Taupō Old Boys will be played at Ray Boord Park at 1pm tomorrow. The Division 2 final between Central and Rotorua Lions will also be played at Ray Boord Park at 1pm.

Lakeland Cricket Semifinal Results
Strikers 11 99/10 (S Bist 34, S Gordon 4/11, S Lund 2/29) lost to Central CC 232/7 (D Hunt 54, FG Gous 44, A Evans 41, Bharath 3/28, R Kumar2/45).
LTCC 72/10 (R Rathnayake 3/15, R Janakantha 3/19, Roshan 2/10) lost to Rotorua Lions 223/9 (AJ Hettiarachchi 99*, N McNeish 3/34, L Kushte 2/34).
BOP Indians 97/10 (A Silwal 35, V Pathania 30, S Dufty 4/24, T Attanyaka 2/14) lost to COB 1 101/6 (S Smith 24, C Downs 24, P Mehta 3/21, K Benipal 2/36).
Geyser WHHS 205/8 ( G O'Donoghue 62*, J O'Donoghue 40, J Collier 3/36, A Kumar 2/23) lost to Geyser JPC 207/8 ( P Singh 114, L Kelly 34, Johnny Wiringi 4/21, E O'Donoghue 2/16, J O'Donoghue 2/28).

Finals Draw
1pm Saturday at Ray Boord Park
Division A: Geyser JPC v Taupō Old Boys
Division B: Central v Rotorua Lions