The Watsons Wanganui under-12 cricket team had a narrow, but controlled five run victory over South Taranaki at Victoria Park on Sunday.
After winning the toss Wanganui elected to bat first with Zane Munn and Caleb Jackson getting the team off to a good start. When Jackson fell for 12, Andrew Dickson carried on with Munn who kept finding the boundary in a quick 38 and by the 20th over the side was exactly where the coach had asked them to be at 85/4.
Dickson fell soon after the drinks break for a well-compiled 25 and after a few quick wickets it was let to Carter Hobbs and Shaun O'Leary to get Wanganui back on track. With some excellent running between the wickets and some hard hitting they managed a 60-run partnership in quick time with Hobbs scoring 28 and O'Leary 30.
Both fell quickly together though and it was left to Daniel Burgess to get a quick 12 not out to get Wanganui to 188/8 off their 40 overs.
Wanganui then got off to a great start in the second innings with four quick wickets, two to Ryan Donaldson (3 overs 2-13) and two to Hobbs and suddenly South Taranaki were 44/4 after 12 overs. Then came a patient 100-plus run partnership between two South Taranaki brothers batting together for the first time and things started to look like they were slipping away from Wanganui. But with the departure of the brothers South Taranaki was left with 13 runs required off five overs with four wickets in hand. Hobbs (7 overs 3-20) and Dickson (7 overs 2-18) then came back for two outstanding overs leaving South Taranaki to scramble for nine runs off the final over. Up stepped captain O'Leary (6 overs 1-25) who bowled a very tight over going for only three runs and giving the tight win to Wanganui by 5 runs.
Meanwhile, with eight regular players unavailable for The Watsons Wanganui under-15s, selectors chose a largely inexperienced team (U13s) for the annual fixture against Horowhenua-Kapiti. It provided an opportunity to develop young players.
Wanganui lost the crucial toss and were put into bat on a wicket that was always going to favour the bowlers during the first hour or so.
HK bowled well and reduced Wanganui to 62 for six before Quinn Mailman (60) and Henry Kilmister (21) were to turn the tables somewhat. However, Wanganui were bowled out in the 31st over for 176.
The young bowling attack bowled well initially and that, coupled with some excellent fielding, reduced HK to 106 for six in the 33rd over. However, they weren't able to keep the pressure up and when the 7th wicket partnership of 55 was finally broken by a superb run out by Mailman, HK only required a further 16 to win. HK scored the remaining runs with no further loss and a few overs to spare. (Wanganui 176, HK 177 for 7).