Saracens too cool for schoolboys

A score of less than 200 was no concern for Marton Saracens as they picked off Wanganui High School at Victoria Park on Saturday.

The premier league match saw both sides lacking that one anchor batsman to shore up an end, as Saracens left the school team a 177-run target.

Seamer Trent Hemi had an excellent return of 4-19 off his 11 overs - after getting amongst the top order he kept the ball low and straight to rattle the stumps of Saracens' last batsmen.

With no batsman seizing control there were several starts across the order Ben Lewis (29) and Daniel Ford (25) the best of them, with new squad member Henry Collier reaching 22.

However, captain Dominic Rayner was still confident any score was defendable.

"We knew that pitch was quite dry, keeping quite slow."

With two spinners in the team, the skipper was content to set a weak legside field while attacking from the onside.

His attack revolving around himself, Collier and Ollie Gordon bowled to match the pressures as the small total became too much for High School.

In the team more for his bowling, Hemi ended up the best batsman with 19 as no one from High School went on with it.

Rayner said that after six months dealing with a back injury, Gordon's return to his long run-up for his seamers was a timely boost to Saracens' arsenal.

The captain took 3-37 from his 11 overs, while Gordon finished with 2-33 from his nine and Collier impressed with 3-35 from his 15.

After the issue with the mooted Tech Old Boys premier 1 team being put away for season 2012-13, Collier has now joined up with the country team, while his New Zealand U19 training squad mate Nick Blundell is currently injured and unavailable for Premier 1 games.

The win made two in a row for Saracens ahead of their big test against United this coming weekend.

United were clinical enough in their five-wicket win over Collegiate at the school grounds on Saturday.

Gerrard Hobbs took five wickets as Collegiate closed out for 184, with Max Carroll making 82 in the successful run chase.

Results:

Porter Hire Premier 1

Saracens 176 (B Lewis 29, D Ford 25, H Collier 22, T Hemi 4-19) beat Wanganui High School 139 (Hemi 19, H Collier 3-35, D Rayner 3-37).

Collegiate 184 lost to United 185-5.

Porter Hire Premier 2

Saracens 166 (A Pond 38no, D Reuters 4-22) lost to WHSOB 167-6 (R Gujral 48, S Rutter 37, A Spence 2-17)

Tech OB 255 (T Matts 59, J Plumridge 130no) bt Renegades 83 (M Deighton 24)