A little slow out of the blocks with the weekly round-up last weekend’s games – blame it heat stroke from the fantastic Summer weather or fatigue from setting up for the current CJCA Tournament.
The last few rounds of T20 action are being played out across town this coming weekend – with the top 3 BWCUCC teams fairing differently in their pursuit of semi-final spots.
PREMIER
The Premiers played East Shirley in T20 action last Thursday and suffered a heavy loss away.
2 further away games were played on Saturday as they looked to ‘right the ship’ and get their campaign back on track. 1st up Lancaster Park at Garrick and the home side posted a handy 165/5 on a good wicket. All of their top 6 bar 1 scored well as 5 individual Burnside bowlers each grabbed a single wicket.
In reply Canterbury Opener Steve Murdoch struck a stylish & powerful 59 off 37 balls, in a rare club appearance. while No: 3 JJ Naude hit a run a ball 37.
When both were dismissed along with fill-in skipper Matt Hay we sat delicately poised at 116/4 off 15 overs. Usual Captain Carl Huyser batted in the specialist jet-lagged position of 5, after his return from visiting Family in Europe, and shook off the symptoms to post a quickfire 24 off 12 but despite a big 6 from Sam Carlaw we fell an agonising 2 runs short in a great game.
Better result next up against OBC on a challenging Elmwood 1 surface – Burnside posting 120/9 after losing early, then regular, wickets. JJ again shone with 33, Matt Farrant got 20 and “Junior” (Mitch Hay) iced the cake with 30 off 32.
The surface dictated that 120 was a score that gave the side some confidence and it proved so as OBC faltered to 106 all out – Farrant got 3 wickets and Matt Hay 2.
Prem’s will need 2 from 2 in their final games this weekend to have a chance to sneak into the semis.
CHAMPIONSHIP:
2nd’s face Sumner & Saints this week and a win from either might be enough to book their spot but 2 would definitely be better.
Last Thursday saw them take on Grade high-flyers Heathcote on Burnside 1. Batting 1st the visitors lost regular wickets and always seemed under pressure but still managed 138/8 – bowling wise Kennedy, McKenzie and Landon Neal shared the wickets with 2 each.
In reply No: 3 Alex Tait batted superbly with 77no off 60 balls (with 11 fours) to anchor one end. Heenan (22) & Neal (13) offered the most support but when the penultimate ball saw the latter bowled Jason McKenzie strode to the crease with Burnside needing 2 to win and 1 for the draw off the last ball.
Jase calmly clipped the ball off his leg and past the despairing dive of short fine leg for 4 – to bring up a memorable win!
Saturday’s action saw them play Merivale Pap Premiers 1st up who batted first and posted a usefull 154/9. Hugo Howard won’t leave me alone reporting wise and his 3/21 requires a mention. Skipper Matt Janett bowled “leg spin” pies but MP weren’t hungry and he stole 2 wickets as well.
In reply Tait couldn’t repeat his heroics from Thursday and we were quickly reduced to 24/3. Skipper Janett struck a breezy 42 off 26 and Will Kennedy a quick 30 but a narrow loss in what shaped as a last over cliffhanger saw the lads come up 7 short.
Afternoon action moved to Burwood with East Shirley probably pretty happy with their total of 148/4 against some tight bowling – including Club Captain Alex McDuff’s 2/23 off 4.
They shouldn’t have been as Burnside coasted home 3 down in the 17th over – Heenan 29 & Tait, shaking off the morning failure, 41 doing the bulk of the damage before Tom Dunlop 27 no and Matt Janett 39 no cleaned up the crumbs in style.
DIVISION 1:
A win & a loss for the 3rd’s in the weekend. Lanc Park were restricted to 143.9 – mainly by the efforts of opening bowler Nick Peoples who snared 4/15. Only 2 Park batsman made double figures – with Hick’s 64 a country mile the best – against an impressive Burnside bowling effort.
In reply Scotty “too hottie” Finlayson continued to literally run too hot again with 62. Only he and skipper McKenzie (22) were dismissed as Finn Ross 41 no & Henk Huyser 12no carried us home inside 18 overs
Earlier in the day they had hosted MP at Burnside 2 and lost in a tight one. MP restricted to 108/6 on a better wicket Martin & Ross claimed 2 wickets each. In reply Burnside took it to the last over with the top 4 all making double figures – Ross’s 25 & McKenzie 17 the best – but the middle order and tail fell away we fell just 3 runs short after a tense final over which MP played out better…
DIVISION 3 – WHANGAPAROA PONY CLUB CANNONS:
Our Cannons faced the grade-leading East Shirley Tridents on No: 3 and the opposition line-up included the notorious Brijesh Patel.
Brijesh has been terrorising batsman in the grade with his left arm quicks for some seasons now. He can hold a bat too! A quick glance at his stats in Cric HQ – 10 matches: 327 runs at 36.33 / 43 wickets at 2.4 (with a strike rate of a wicket every 9.33 balls) – suggests he may be better employed elsewhere but El Capitan Peters loves a challenge and the lads entered the contest in a positive frame of mind.
Cannon’s Captain Chris Peters looks on as Brijesh Patel runs in for East’s Tritans
Patel starred with the bat initially – scoring 69 as his team posted 205/8 off their 40. This was all part of El Capitan’s plan apparently as he sought to tire Patel in the heat with a long innings so he would be weary through the bowling crease.
It worked in part as Patel only took 2/24 off 8 in the Cannon’s innings. But with 3 other Patel’s in the lineup Easts tightened the screws to see Burnside 56/4 & then 85/5 in reply. Peters at 7 joined the reliable Dilla Smith and set about the push forward.
But he was dismissed just 20 runs later and despite a bright 21 off 18 balls from Kasun the pressure told on Smith who was bowled by the aforementioned B Patel when lashing out to increase the run rate.
Dilla’s 49 came off 48 balls and included 3 fours and a six – but with his dismissal the mountain became too steep, despite the “Viking” Gillespie’s 20 no, and the innings ended with the Cannons just 23 runs short and 8 down.
PRESIDENTS:
Over on No: 4 a slightly greenish tinge to the rock hard surface promised something for everyone as the Foxes took on Hornby.
The latter won the toss and asked Burnside to bat as Hamish Kember arrived and muttered quietly about a sore neck.
The top 6 really haven’t fired significantly for the Foxes this season – despite them continuing to sit atop the Grade table. That all changed as firstly Chris Kennedy (32) and Josh Allan (47) shared a bright and breezy 60 run opening partnership. Everest finished massaging Kember back to health and entered at 3 – where he assisted Allan in progressing matters satisfactorily as the Fox & Associates sponsored side reached 94/1 at drinks.
Grant Dickson joined Everest soon after and the pair faced some stiff resistance from Hornby initially – as Criag Beecroft find a tight line in his 8-overs straight to restrict things.
But that turned out to be the calm before the storm as Dickson (55) broke the shackles and Everest (41) chimed in as the pair took 20 off a Palermo over.
Everest’s demise at 179/3 saw Graeme Turner set about polishing the innings with a quickfire 33 no (reverse & slog sweeps to the fore) and despite Dickson finally perishing the Foxes posted an imposing 217/4.
Into the field and Kember, brow now unfurrowed and neck unknotted, looked to pick up where he left off with the ball after his 5/6 off 7 overs last week.
Cricket’s a funny game though and while he did take 1 wicket in the innings (for 44 & off 8 overs) it was Joel Lieschke (2/36) who grabbed the early headlines dismissing both openers fairly cheaply to see Hornby 28/2.
Stand in Skipper Sergeant Major Roy controversially bowled Dickson at 1st change ahead of the usual Wheeler – but it paid off as Dicko firstly bowled Haslam for 18 then had Warner caught for 1.
Wheels isn’t one to be denied though and he would end with the best figures of 4/44 off his 8.
In between times Mr Beecroft joined the innings at 7 for Hornby and set about trying to hit his team out of trouble. He punished anything too short or too full with clean striking in a tremendous innings of 101. His bullish knock included 11 fours and 6 sixes – meaning the Foxes were both relieved and grateful when Dickson took a sharp catch off Wheeler to dismiss him 1st ball of the 40th over – with Hornby needing 28 to win.
The tail-enders noodled 7 runs off the remaining balls and the Foxes wandered to the chilli-bin with a 20-run win.
CAVALIERS T20 – THE GHETTOHUSTLERS:
Brad Reid and his GhettoHustlers side have been with the Club for 10+ years now – but I’m not sure they have ever played on the hallowed ground of Burnside 1.
So when the Club Chairman text him on Friday to advise that, with the 2nd’s playing an early T20 then vacating the block, some strings had been pulled to move Brad’s game onto 1 – he was naturally delighted.
The lads gathered particularly early and chatted excitedly as OBC batted first on a good paced wicket.
They promptly entered their scorecard this week but only a short one so I don’t have individual stats to report. But I saw a bit of it and can describe as follows:
OBC posted 133/8 in the face of some energised “hustle” in the field. Every wicket was celebrated with the tribal call of the ghetto – the “char whooo” – and hi-5’s were slapped firmly & repeatedly. Young children were briefly distracted sideline – flying tiny kites and smiling at butterflies – but everyone’s attention was often drawn to the action on the field, if not but the standard of cricket (which was entirely reasonable), but by the enthusiastic banter and fits of laughter.
Into bat and wickets were mixed with regular bat flourishes as the Hustlers played positively, if not occasionally recklessly. Mitch Neutze, a handy cricketer, was in and set about the target earnestly.
He was soon joined by skipper Reid and, while I didn’t see all of his innings, I saw him strike 3 booming sixes in 4 balls at one stage as the lads threatened to take the game right away from OBC.
With his dismissal, and that of Neutze, the Burnside lads looked to have let the game slip away though – as the last pair met in the middle with still 40 required for the win.
Hush you doubters though – both men played positively and ran hard between the wickets to bring home the victory in a quite stunning final 15 minutes of action. 134/7 got the job done in style and the lads celebrated fervently with their group of supporters.
Upstairs to the club for some chilled cruisers to repay the Club the favour for putting them on 1 – a great day out for the basketball singleted ones – well done lads!!!!
OTHER RESULTS:
A quick wrap up from other results across the Senior Club:
Div 4: Boomers 79 all out lost to Sydenham Goats 219/8 (Rama, Cremner & Edlin 2 wickets each)
Div 5: Strikers 102 all out (Desai 28 / Bhardwaj 24) lost to St Albans Buccaneers 103/7 (Pandya 3/12)
Cavaliers T20:
Dubai Diamond Traders 139/7 beat Riccarton Hoggs 79/7 (no stats entered)
The Believers 32 all out lost to Marist Harewood Avesec 33/0
Holsteins Boys 128/4 lost to Heathcote Has Beens 129/2 (no stats entered)
See you all this weekend….