Spinner turns heads with 7-2

Caleb Greene, Wanganui High School batsman, faces the Cullinane College attack at Victoria Park yesterday in their Gillette Cup game. Photo/Stuart Munro

Wanganui High School will have to go hunting through allthe old cricket-book scoreboards after their current young spinner snared the best bowling figures in recent memory in their Gillette Cup win at Victoria Park yesterday.

WHS beat Cullinane College by six wickets, having bowled them out for 170, Andrew Mackintosh tearing apart the entire middle and lower order almost single-handed to finish with the extraordinary figures of seven wickets for two runs in a 6.4-over spell.

Cullinane had some strong batting at the top of their order, with Central Districts representative Brett Cameron (33) and Wanganui player Adam Boult (56) getting them off to a good start, supported by No3 Logan Anderson (24).

However, after Dylan Martin made the breakthrough by getting Cameron and Boult, Mackintosh exposed Cullinane's soft underbelly by sending one batsman after another back to the shed, to his teammates' delight.

While he had taken a hat-trick of wickets before, Mackintosh said he could "absolutely not" believe he would get that many scalps in an innings.

"[It was] just line and length, on the spot."

WHS coach Andrew Lock said he would have to check with his brother, who coached the team years ago, to see if Mackintosh's figures had beaten any records.

"In my recorded memory, that's the best I've ever come across."

The team then cruised through to 171-4 in 30 overs, as Adam Gill scored 53, while Caleb Greene added 42.

WHS will now take on Collegiate next week, probably on Tuesday, with the winning side to face the top Taranaki school in the next Gillette Cup round.