A startling Western Bay of Plenty spring day welcomed Manukau South and Bay of Plenty blind cricket teams as they walked out on to the Bay Oval at Mount Maunganui on Sunday morning.
The occasion was the first Bay of Plenty Blind Cricket Festival Day, with a team from Manukau South taking on Bay of Plenty. Bay of Plenty batted first in the T20 encounter and reached a respectable 87 runs in 18.4 overs. Top scorers for the Bay team were Ross Gilmore and Tony Wilson with 17 runs each, while Steph Jobson chipped in with a handy 30.
Manukau South reached 98 to win the match, with Marquele McCaskill and Andrew McDonald both posting 20 before retiring. Under blind cricket rules, players are allowed to retire at 30 and then return to bat out any remaining overs. With Sunday's match being regarded as part of the development of blind cricket, the retirement total was reduced to 20, to ensure that the majority of the players had time at the crease.
Bay of Plenty were proud of their performance, as they reduced the visitors' winning margin to just 11 runs, a big improvement on previous games.
