Smith rescues finals dream

Bowler Ryan Smith turned into an unlikely hero for Whangarei Boys' High School as they finally qualified for a Gillette Cup tournament yesterday after defeating Tauranga Boys' College at Kensington Park.
The last time  the school's first  XI qualified for the country's top secondary school tournament was way back in 1996.
Smith was hit around the park in his first spell of bowling and was taken out of the attack as the Tauranga middle order batsmen started to look like they would win the match, chasing 211 for the win.
They had reached 150, with seven wickets and 16 overs remaining, and looked like they had done enough to get the win until the left-arm finger spinner was brought back into the attack after drinks.
 Smith almost immediately paid back his captain Rory Darkins for his chance by making a breakthrough.
 He had top scorer Nick Enervy caught by Henry Cooper for 52 and shortly afterwards had the other dangerman, Steve Sievwright, dismissed for 28.
"He came up trumps for us really, and got us out of a sticky situation," Darkins said.
"But everyone stood up today and I'm proud of the boys."
It was the win the team had been hoping for but had never dared to believe in - after missing out in the knockout stages so many times before.
"We're obviously pretty happy about it, especially because we got ourselves out of a hole and that added to the emotion a little bit," Darkins said.
"They had a good partnership [between Enervy and Sievwright] in the middle and it was taking the game away from us.
"But we chipped out a couple of wickets and then the rest fell pretty quickly."
Whangarei Boys' batted first and got off to a careful start, with Darkins and fellow opener Todd Beehre taking the score to 75 before Darkins was caught off the bowling of Crawford.
Beehre scored 31 before being dismissed and he went at the same time as the in-form Henry Cooper, who was run out for 15.
The double blow slowed the inning's momentum, leaving Ben Hyde all too often stranded at the non-striker's end.
Jordan Antunovich came to the rescue.
He was given free licence to attack by his skipper and did so very effectively, eventually top-scoring with 43 with Hyde also contributing a valuable 33.
The Tauranga bowlers also chipped in toward the total with an expensive 44 extras to take WBHS to 210 in their 50 overs for the loss of seven wickets.
WBHS becomes one of eight teams  in the 2009 finals tournament, to be held over four days in Palmerston North, starting on December 10.
Hamilton Boys' High School are the current champions after  defeating Westlake High School in the final last December.