Cricket: Bay of Plenty teams second and fourth at Junior Secondary School Tournament

Northern Districts' best junior cricketers battled for bragging rights at the Northern Districts Junior Secondary Tournament.

Among those in action in Whangarei last week were the Bay of Plenty Coastland and Lakeland teams.

Coastland finished second in the ND Championship and shared the T20 title while Lakeland finished fourth in the championship rounds and third-equal in the T20 competition.

In the championship final on Friday, Hamilton batted first and set Bay of Plenty Coastland an impressive target of 273. Spencer Wills and Depp Bollinger were the best of the bowlers, taking three wickets each. Two half centuries, from Wills and Utsav Kumar, were not enough as the Bay side were bowled out for 214 to hand the Waikato team the championship title.

In Bay of Plenty Lakeland's third-place playoff, it was their opposition Counties Manukau who batted first and were removed for 197. Lakeland put up a good fight, but ultimately fell short, dismissed for 154.

In the semifinals on Thursday, Coastland beat Counties Manukau to book their place in the decider. Coastland batted first and scored 232, despite being in some trouble at 71/5. Batting at six, Mathew Ward top scored with 47 runs, with Finn O'Brien-O'Loan coming in at 10 and posting 42 not out off just 27 balls.

Counties were bowled out for 145, 88 runs short of their target, with O'Brien-O'Loan taking four wickets.

Bay of Plenty Lakeland put up a determined fight against Hamilton in their semifinal before tasting defeat. The Lakeland batsmen were bowled out for 178, with Hamilton going on to a five-wicket win.

Earlier in the week, in the T20 portion of the week, Coastland beat Counties Manukau and Lakeland lost to Northland in the semifinals after both winning two from two on day one. The Coastland win put them through to the final against hosts Northland while the Lakeland boys locked into the third and fourth place playoffs with Waikato Valley.

Unfortunately, wet weather resulted in the playoffs being abandoned, with Coastland sharing the title with Northland and the Lakeland representatives finishing in third-equal position.

Northern Districts Junior Secondary Cricket Tournament

Championship Final: Hamilton 272 (H Trumm 130; Spencer Wills 3/39, Depp Bollinger 3/45) beat Bay of Plenty Coastland 214 (58, Utsav Kumar 51, Harsh Patel 30).

Third Place Playoff: Counties Manukau 197 (Cohen Stewart 3/30, Logan Murray 3/31) beat Bay of Plenty Lakeland 154 (Billy Syme 42, Loughlin Keaney 32).