Cricket: Bay of Plenty and Counties meet again

TOP FORM: Allrounder Donovan Deeble has been one of the star performers for Bay of Plenty this season. PHOTO:

It may seem like Groundhog Day when Bay of Plenty and Counties Manukau square off in the last round of the Fergus Hickey Rosebowl at the Tauranga Domain tomorrow and Sunday.

The two combatants will be meeting for the fourth time this season in Northern Districts and Hawke Cup competitions.

Bay of Plenty coach Graeme Aldridge said their approach would be same as the three other matches.

"We need to try to win the game to give us the best chance of winning the Fergus Hickey Trophy. We will be pretty positive in our approach knowing we need to catch up a couple of points from Waikato Valley and Hamilton," he said.

"The team is coping well with the continuous cricket. So far we haven't had many injuries which has been helpful. Combining two- and three-day cricket doesn't affect our gameplans at all really. Individuals may approach it a little differently but in the main we are trying to do the same things in both formats."

Their first match-up of the season against Counties Manukau, was in a T20 encounter at the annual ND One-Day tournament in Taupo last December. Bay of Plenty restricted Counties to 132/6 and then got home with three wickets to spare, with Sean Davey top-scoring with an unbeaten 43.

The two sides met again two days later in the ND One-Day final with the Brian Dunning Trophy on the line. Bay of Plenty batted first and were bowled out for 193, with Ben Musgrave scoring a half-century. Counties Manukau got home with four wickets in hand, courtesy of 75 runs from Ash Vodnala.

No one could have imagined the mayhem the Bay side would inflict when Counties won the toss and asked the home side to bat first in their Hawke Cup Challenge at the Bay Oval in late January.

Bay of Plenty blasted their way to 701 all out, with Yorkshire County professional Alex Lees smashing 223 in his debut game for the province. Donovan Deeble scored his maiden Bay of Plenty century, with Peter Drysdale (84), Ben Musgrave (53), Tony Goodin (46) and Tim Clarke (45) making big contributions to the huge total.

The Bay bowlers were also in impressive form, bowling the challengers out for 220 to retain the Hawke Cup by a massive 481 first innings lead. Chris Atkinson in just his fourth match for Bay of Plenty led the way with four wickets at a cost of just 22 runs.

Donavan Deeble and Iman Singh also bowled well to finish with two wickets each.