VICTORIOUS: The Whanganui St Johns Tech lads celebrate a convincing nine-wicket win over Levin Old Boys in the inaugural Coastal Challenge Cup inter-district cricket final.
VICTORIOUS: The Whanganui St Johns Tech lads celebrate a convincing nine-wicket win over Levin Old Boys in the inaugural Coastal Challenge Cup inter-district cricket final.
Ross Kinnerley was one of the stars of the show after St Johns Tech crushed Levin Old Boys with a nine-wicket victory in the final of the inaugural Coastal Challenge Cup at Donnelly Park in Levin yesterday.
The right arm medium fast bowler was immediately in the action for theWhanganui team claiming the first five Levin Old Boys wickets for a paltry 15 runs in 10 overs. Admittedly, it was a bowlers wicket, with Levin openers Jamie Pinfold (duck) and Bailey Te Tomo (6) going cheaply. Kinnerley kept the pressure on taking the scalps of Dion Samson (1), Ryan Taylor (duck) and Nick Putt (8) to have Levin firmly on the ropes. Nick Harding, fresh up from an injury scare during training on Thursday, chimed in with the wickets of Jarrod Bowick (9) and Stacey Kerehoma for a duck leaving Levin 47/7 by the 15th over.
Liam Pinfold made a go of it for Levin with his bat with help from Nick O'Brien. The pair appeared to be forming a solid partnership until Kane Watkin took O'Brien out of the frame for 15 runs in the 24th over leaving Levin on 70/8.
Liam Pinfold continued making a nuisance of himself clinging on and keeping the scoreboard just ticking over until the return of Kinnerley who almost immediately clean bowled him. Pinfold ended up the best of the Levin batters scoring 37 from 41 balls.
That gave Kinnerley an impressive haul of 6 wickets for 15 runs off his 10 overs. Harding then chipped in to take the final wicket of Fraser Bartholomew on four. Harding ended the innings with 3-31 off 10 overs. The first innings was all done and dusted after 33 overs with Levin denied passing the 100 mark with just 97 runs.
Harding and Caleb Greene opened the batting for St Johns Tech and were well on target after the first seven overs posting a partnership of 36 runs and reaching the 50 partnership by the 10th over with Harding on 25 off just 23 balls, including two fours and a six, while Greene was on 22 including three fours. The partnership was beginning to free up and runs were coming easily until Bartholomew nabbed Greene's wicket when he was on 25 and Tech in the 80s. Harding carried on his merry way to finally claim the match in the dying minutes with a real bang. He smashed a six to take the score to 100/1 with his own statistics looking sharp. Harding ended the innings 66 not out from 36 balls, including six sixes.
St Johns Tech manager Andrew Lock said it was a satisfying victory after the rocky road the side had taken to the final. "We only made the top four by the skin of teeth really and slipped into the final when United lost," Lock said after match yesterday.
"Ross (Kinnerley) set us up with his six-wicket haul and then Nick (Harding) finished it off for us, although Caleb (Greene) did well to stay for as long as he did to help out. It was a good win given Levin had beaten Manawatu on the way through and they're no slugs." Captain Dominic Lock said he was happy to play a minor role after coming to bat as first drop when Greene's wicket fell. He was only required to face two balls before Harding smashed the last ball for six to take the game.
