Matt Burke Engineering Marton Saracens picked up their second victory over a fellow Whanganui team in the Coastal Challenge Cup with a 58 run win over table leaders St Johns Tech at Centennial Park on Saturday.
A re-jigging of the batting order assisted Marton as Tom Walsh (23) moved upto open so when Scott Oliver came in at 59-4, he proceeded to play the anchor role, with 52 from 119 balls.
At the other end, Josh Trillo swept to 60 at a run a ball, including three sixes and five boundaries, in their 101 run partnership.
Oliver would finally fall in the 48th over, with Dan Ford (15 not out) and Sam Lambert (13) looking to snaffle some late runs to complete the recovery at 206-7.
Ross Kinnerley took 3-49 from his full compliment of overs, while Caleb Greene (2-34) and Akash Gill (0-24) were very conservative from their spells, although the team was soon to miss allrounder Nick Harding.
While Greene fell early, it appeared Tim Czerwonka (18) and Gill (36 from 26 balls) were setting Tech up comfortably for their chase at 62-1 in the tenth over.
However, Dan Ford (2-28) and Trillo (2-48) broke up the pair to catches, with Ford also getting a caught and bowled on Sam Roebuck.
The key man in Tech captain Dominic Lock (44) appeared to be leading another recovery with James Dorgan (15), but from 130-4 and back in control, Tech collapsed again as Lambert (4-24) got both men as well as the other big hope in Kinnerley, while Trillo and Hamish Harding helped clean up the tail for the visitors to lose their last six wickets in the space of ten overs for 148.
After good wins over Tech and Property Brokers United, the challenge for Marton will be to take their form on the road against the Horowhenua-Kapiti club teams in order to cement their place in the Top 4.
United's match with Marist was not played on Saturday with them away in Palmerston North at the Central Districts playoffs of the National Club Championship.
Scoreboard Marton 206-7 (J Trillo 60, S Oliver 52, T Walsh 23, R Kinnerley 3-49, C Greene 2-34) beat Tech 148 (D Lock 44, A Gill 36, S Lambert 4-24, D Ford 2-28, J Trillo 2-48) by 58 runs.
