If there is anything which can be said for the Watsons Wanganui and Taranaki under-13 representative teams, it is that they are most dangerous on their home pitch.
Wanganui drew first blood at the start of the season with a comfortable eight wicket victory at Victoria Park on November 24,but Taranaki had the last laugh in New Plymouth on Sunday with a 78-run hammering when it was their turn to play hosts for the 40-over match.
The email from Wanganui development officer Dilan Raj said Taranaki showed good local knowledge by choosing to bat first on a pitch which started benign and ended unpredictable.
Taranaki batted well against the decent Wanganui attack, struggling when put under pressure but unfortunately this was not often enough.
Raemon Teki was the pick of the bowlers, while Kashish Nauhria and Beau Hourigan were also able to contain Taranaki to a degree, but the home team still compiled a very competitive 178-5 from their innings. Unlike November, Wanganui's normally solid top order collapsed in the space of spirited Taranaki bowling and were reduced to 34-5.
A 60-run partnership between Teki (40) and Keiran McInnes (24) in the middle of the innings gave Wanganui some respectability, but when McInnes was run out from some outstanding fielding, it signalled the end of resistance as the tail folded with just 100 on the board.
It was only the second time Wanganui under-13 have been completely dismissed this season and signalled a disappointing end to the representative summer.
Still, they had shown a lot of positive development over the past four-and-a-half months, winning seven of 10 completed matches.
