Horouta adopted a more aggressive approach — batting first in their Round 2 win by six runs against Dave Castle’s HSOB side — than they had against OBR in a first-up loss by four wickets.
To beat hitherto unbeaten HSOB was an upset win that owed a ton to skipper Situ (61) and Gautam Sareen (42).
Horouta having been put in to bat, their 102-run stand at the top of the order gave Te Waka great heart.
The HSOB left-arm new-ball pair of Jak Rowe and Keegan Jooste went wicketless for 31 and 26 respectively that day, which was crucial to Horouta’s success.
In response, HSOB No.1 Steve Lamb (28) and first-drop Graham Sharp (29) went at better than a run a ball but Te Waka spearhead Billy Morse (2-9) and the sixth bowler used, Sareen (3-21), were superb. Three good overs each from those two put Horouta in a solid position defending 120.
Boys’ High have played both of their Walker Shield games on a quality No.1 pitch — the ground for their game tomorrow — but have yet to show aggressive intent batting first. They reached 64-7 against HSOB and 74-3 against OBR before Christmas. Opener David Gray (23) in Game 1 and first-drop Alex Shanks (40) in Game 2 had played their only innings of consequence.
Shanks’s 40 off 40 balls was a busy innings and at his best, he is a busy player. Good judges within the premier ranks feel that Boys’ High are most effective, and potentially dangerous, the more purposeful their approach. Shot selection is a factor for batsmen at all levels but a young team whose batsmen can hit the ball, and do, and run hard to boot, can put even experienced players under pressure.
Secretly, those old heads enjoy such a challenge.
Ormiston made two half-centuries — the first of which was an unbeaten knock — and Shanks made 49 for Poverty Bay at the Northern Districts tournament in Gisborne in December. Both made Doleman Cup 50s for Boys’ High in the 40-over competition and if they, Situ, Sareen or Harmanpreet Singh —the first Premier Grade century-maker of the season with 105 off 83 balls against OBR — adopt that attacking bent, this first GBHS-Horouta T15 clash could be a belter.
Keanu Makiri took 2-18 from three overs in Boys’ High’s last T15 outing with OBR, and both teams’ bowling stocks look healthy ahead of tomorrow’s game.
Left-armer Johnny Gray, all-rounder Nathaniel Fearnley, Keanu and Akira Makiri, and Riker Rolls line up for GBHS. Morse, Sareen and Stanley Blake are among Te Waka’s best options. Blake could be very useful for Horouta. He bowls a good outswinger, off-spin and leg-spin.
Such a bowler has the ability to turn a game upside-down, and Jooste — who took 2-9 in two overs in the Walker Shield opener — is also capable of that. HSOB will be hoping that he and Rowe can knock off the OBR top order tomorrow.
Jooste snared 4-12 from four overs on his Doleman Cup debut and nine wickets in the six Doleman Cup games possible. Rowe took 3-15 in 5.2 overs against Gisborne Boys’ High in the last round-robin match of the Doleman Cup. HSOB have now held that trophy for three years.
They sit in third place behind OBR (eight competition points) and Horouta in the Walker Shield, with the final scheduled for March 21.
Castle bowls his off-spin tightly — he and his HSOB teammate leg-spinner Divesh Mistry (4-23 against GBHS on December 2) were both match-winners at different times before Christmas — but OBR captain Nick Greeks is as capable and effective a bowler.
Left-arm orthodox spinner Greeks took 3-39 from eight overs in the Doleman Cup final, and tomorrow he and OBR need to get their teeth back into cricket.
The No.2 wicket on which HSOB will play OBR yielded a stack of runs before Christmas. In the first three days of the u19 tourney, in 50-over matches, Hamilton made 308 batting first in Round 1; both Bay of Plenty Coastlands and Northland made 200-plus on it the next day; and Northland chased down the ND Invitational team’s 294 on Day 3.
The format and tempo of batsmanship from 50 overs to 15 is vastly different but while the totals will be smaller, both HSOB and OBR need to attack with blade in hand from the outset.
Greeks has batted in the lower order because of injury but they will need their best batsman on the day to make more than 32, which was their No.3 Nathan Trowell’s score against HSOB in the Doleman Cup final.
Three batsmen (left-handed opener Sean Henry, Dane Thompson at five and wicketkeeper Kieran Venema at seven) made 22 that day. OBR’s batsmen must bat deep, if such a thing is possible in T15 cricket, from such starts tomorrow.
HSOB skipper Castle has big plans for his side — and capable cricketers in mind to bring them to fruition.
“It’s an exciting time for our club, with Scott Tallott taking up one of our vice-captain positions,” he said.
“He brings a wealth of experience at higher levels of cricket, and exceptional skill. He takes a ‘follow me’ approach to batting, is aggressive and plays a wide array of quality strokes.
“Scott’s also very game-aware, so we want to harness his knowledge in the two-day format as well as T15, along with that of Jak Rowe and a high-quality all-rounder in Carl Shaw.”
Northern Districts development panel umpire Jason Trowill will control the OBR-HSOB match on Harry Barker Reserve No.2, while Stu Patrick will stand in the GBHS-Horouta clash on No.1.
