Bidwill Cup win in sight for Boys

Cricket

Outright wins are on the cards when matches in Cricket Wairarapa's Bidwill Cup competition continue tomorrow.

A1 Homes Kuranui Old Boys clearly have the inside running on Wairarapa College, the students being 6-1 in their second innings after trailing by 116 runs on the first.

The challenge for Wairarapa College will be to advance their second innings total to a point where they not only make Kuranui Old Boys bat again but have enough runs in the bank to give themselves some chance of pulling off an unlikely victory.

Kuranui Old Boys, on the other hand, will be intent on capturing the nine remaining Wairarapa College wickets before their own first innings total is overhauled and they have good reason to fancy their prospects.

Hayden Spierling, the former Wairarapa quickie, picked up six wickets last weekend and will be champing at the bit to have another decent crack at the college team tomorrow.

Honours were about even at the end of the first day's play between Flight Centre Lansdowne and Turkey Red Greytown, although it could be said Greytown had their noses in front. They were 155-7 in their first innings, a two-run lead with three wickets intact.

The tactics employed by Greytown tomorrow will be interesting. They desperately need an outright win to boost their hopes of meeting runaway leaders Red Star in the Bidwill Cup final.

So they might well consider declaring at the start of play rather than risk running out of time in their own run chase later in the day.

But even if Greytown elect to bat on with the hope of building a good first innings lead, the number of free-scoring players in the Lansdowne line-up means that an exciting finish is a possibility.

The other Bidwill Cup match set to end tomorrow was between Red Star and Newbolds Marist Old Boys.

However, it was all done and dusted by tea on the first day; Red Star winning by 147 runs after bowling out a depleted Marist Old Boys for 29 and 46.