Two changes in Poverty Bay cricket side

Cricket PB v Hamilton - Tom Hayes in action

POVERTY Bay coach David McDonald has made two changes for the Fergus Hickey Rosebowl two-day cricket game against Waikato Valley that starts at 10.30am at Harry Barker Reserve tomorrow.

Former Pirates batsman Thomas Hayes, who plays for Fraser Tech in Hamilton, and Matt Whitley (loan player from Hamilton) are the only changes from the side who lost to Hawke’s Bay in Napier two weeks ago. They replace Ajay Kumar and Keegan Martin.

“Both will boost the batting line-up,” McDonald said.

“Thomas, who will also keep for us this weekend, has been playing for Fraser Tech for the past two seasons.

“He’s a quality batsman and we’ve had good reports about Matt, a top-order batsman.”

Hayes has scored two representative hundreds, against Waikato Valley and Counties Manukau, and will be a key player this weekend.

“Getting Thomas back is a huge boost,” Bay captain Mitchell Turner said.

“Like a lot of our players, he’s young but has plenty of representative experience behind him.

“Playing at home, it’s a good chance for the younger players to stand up, work hard and get the job done.

“It’s always a good battle with Waikato Valley.

“In the past two years, they’ve had strong line-ups so it’s important that we play to our strengths.

“We have a strong, young, fit bowling unit. Jak Rowe is bowling really well and Robbie Tallott has come on in leaps and bounds with his bowling.

“In the batting, I feel we have a good balance of patient and aggressive batsmen.”

Waikat Valley's gameWaikato Valley go into the match having beaten the Bay in a two-day game and a one-dayer last season.

“They were close games,” McDonald said.

“That’s generally been the way it’s gone in recent seasons and even though we lost to Hawke’s Bay, it was good for our players to see where they were at in representative level against the power house of Hawke’s Bay. Batting wasn’t easy after being sent in on a bowler-friendly pitch against a strong bowling attack.

“The Harry Barker pitch should be a good one with settled weather this week.

“One positive that came out of the game was the 52-run partnership between Josh Bates and Thorn Parkes.

“Let’s hope we can build on that this weekend.”

POVERTY BAY: Mitchell Turner (captain), Sean Dykes (loan), Thorn Parkes, Sam Tallott, Thomas Hayes, Josh Bates, Robbie Tallott, Scott Tallott, Jarrod Davenport, Jak Rowe, Matt Whitley (loan). One to be added.