Northland senior men's bowler Hamish Kidd (centre) lets one fly against Counties Manukau at Cobham Oval over the weekend. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Northland senior men's bowler Hamish Kidd (centre) lets one fly against Counties Manukau at Cobham Oval over the weekend. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Northland's senior men's cricket team wrapped up their 2019/2020 season with a comfortable first innings win over Counties Manukau at Cobham Oval.
Bowling first in the two-day game in Whangārei, the hosts had the visitors in trouble early when Northland's opening paceman, Nathan Parkes, trapped Counties opener Terence Otterson lbwwith the first ball of the match.
Northland paceman Nathan Parkes started the game well with a wicket off the very first ball of the match. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Northland continued to dominate and had Counties 86/6 inside 55 overs on a friendly pitch. However, good work from the visitors' lower order saw Counties eventually reach 204.
Parkes, Ben Hyde and Chris Page all picked up three wickets for the home side.
With the bat, Northland's Nick Hammond, James Banicevich and Ian Page stood out with scores of 65, 53 and 43 respectively, which took their side through to 222/8 before play came to a close on Sunday.
"A couple of guys played some nice innings but didn't quite finish it off," Northland player/coach Neal Parlane said.
"It was disappointing [Counties] got 200 for us, but I think it showed our batsmen that if you got in and showed some intent to score, there were some big scores there for the taking."
The bank at Cobham Oval is looking a little less green these days. Photo / Michael Cunningham
The game brought to a close a mixed season for Northland's men's team with varying luck in the 50-over competition.
The season was punctuated by a good win in the Brian Dunning T20 competition, which saw Ollie White and Henry Cooper both score centuries.
"I did target the T20 competition and we won that but it's pleasing to see the group is getting better and better as a team and individually, and we've put out some pretty good team performances," Parlane said.
Parlane said getting more runs from his top order would be a focus before two fixtures against Bay of Plenty and Hamilton in November which, should Northland win, see the side challenge for the Hawke Cup.
In Northland's premier club cricket two-day competition, three one-sided games played out across the region on Saturday.
Motel Sierra Kamo look assured an outright victory after bowling FMG Northern out for 93 in the first innings before scoring 205 runs in reply.
Kamo will resume in the field with Northern teetering on 87/7, trailing by 25 runs, at the Kamo Recreation Ground.
Westech Automotive Maungakaramea saw similar success with the ball, reducing Kensington Tavern Onerahi Central to 87/7 in their first innings after scoring 243 at the Maungakaramea Domain.
Kaipara Flats also sit in a position of ascendancy against Duracrete Products City at Kensington Park.
