Captain's knock falls short

Brendan Walker sends down a delivery to Caleb Greene at Victoria Park. The United bowlers tied an undermanned Tech down in the second innings of their Premier League game on Saturday. Photo/Stuart Munro

Missing a player and relying almost entirely on their captain was not enough for St Johns Tech as they fell 50 runs short of Property Brokers United's gettable target on Victoria Park's No2 pitch on Saturday.

In setting a 235-run target for victory in the latest Premier League competition match, United's veteran players throughout the order all made starts but could not provide an anchor innings to crack on for a big score from their 55 overs.

From 92-3, key wickets were lost at 146 and then two on 174.

Premier female player Jessica Watkin picked up her best figures at the senior men's level, taking three wickets for a slightly-expensive 42 runs off her eight overs.

But the United veterans still held their nerve as Gerard Hobbs, in his 20th club season, had decided to enter the batting lineup at No 11 to give some of the younger players a go up the order.

Joining fellow senior player Jamie Whiteman at 191-9, the final pair put on a priceless 43 runs, including eight boundaries, by batting out the full innings and contributing 27 and 19 respectively.

Having only 10 available players, Tech needed a big score from someone in their top order, and while those batsmen contributed runs they also got bogged down as the United spinners began to tick the clock over.

Kane Watkin struck some promising boundaries before he fell to Whiteman on 19, while Caleb Greene moved into the 20s before becoming stuck against Tom Lance's spinners and the very close fielding ring.

After managing only a single from 28 balls, Greene was run out.

Lance finished with a very tidy 1-24 from his full 15 overs.

Skipper Dominic Lock, knowing full well he was shouldering the responsibility of Tech's innings, picked up the pace alongside Jessica Watkin, pulling some boundaries to move to 50.

At 115-3 after 34 overs, Tech still had a chance, but when spinner Robbie Power caught up with Lock just five runs short of his century, the writing was on the wall.

Power finished with 4-33 from 10 overs while United also made two run-outs as they cleaned up the Tech tail with two overs remaining.

Meanwhile, Collegiate will take a lot of confidence into their Gillette Cup game tomorrow with Wanganui High School after they beat Bayer Marist by five wickets at the school grounds.

Marist made 207 with Craig Thorpe (67) and Brett Cameron (55) the main contributors.

In reply, Collegiate were in trouble at 50-4, before Todd Inness scored an excellent century to see them through to the target.

While it was Marist's first defeat in the Premier League, the game was a non-points match so they will maintain their place at the top of the table.

Result

United 234-9 (T Lance 35, R Power 33, M Carroll 29, B Walker 27, J Whiteman 27no, J Watkin 3-42, D Lock 2-16, P O'Callaghan 2-56) beat Tech 184 (D Lock 95, J Roebuck 25no, C Greene 25, R Power 4-33, T Lance 1-24).