Defiant Wairarapa battle back for Hawke Cup draw

A DEFIANT Wairarapa came back from the dead to draw their Hawke Cup elimination senior men's cricket match with Hawke's Bay at Nelson Park, Hastings over the weekend.
The home team looked certain to take maximum points when after declaring their own first innings closed at a healthy 380-6 they rolled Wairarapa for just 83 and enforced the follow on.
At that point any chance of a Wairarapa victory had gone and the objective was to avoid outright defeat.
Considering their first innings effort that seemed a rather forlorn hope, even more so when opener John Hannam fractured his jaw when struck by aball just before being dismissed with only eight runs on the board.
Daniel Stoneley and Cam Stone came and went and at 75-3 Hawke's Bay were well and truly in the box seat.
Enter the usually aggressive David Irvine and in a knock of 32 which included one six and four fours he was actually the junior partner in a stand of 93 runs with opener Sam Curtis, whose brilliant 108 was studded with fours, 18 of them in all
Curtis was at the wicket for 221 minutes and faced 188 balls while Irvine's willingness to play a support role is illustrated by the fact he batted for 86 minutes and faced 164 balls.
But when Irvine went at 168 , Curtis at 179, the in-form Seth Rance at 188 and Jeremy Anderson at 197, and Matt Young at 203 the odds were still clearly in favour of Bay securing an outright win.
However, that brought Paul Lyttle and skipper Robin James together and they adopted a positive stance in an unbroken 55-run partnership which was only halted by bad light.
James, who batted at No.10 in both innings despite being one of his side's more proven batsman at the top provincial level, struck six fours and a six in his 37 while Lyttle hit three fours and a six in his 27.
Earlier, the Wairarapa bowlers had taken some "stick" in Hawke's Bay's first innings.
Seven were used in all with Carwyn Caffell and Matt Young claiming two wickets apiece.
Wairarapa's fist innings produced only one knock of any significance, Rance slamming three fours and a six in his unbeaten 27., Next highest scorer was gritty opener John Hannam, whose 11 was scored off 70 balls. In fact, he faced 17 more balls than any other Wairarapa batsmen.
HAWKES BAY
Pimm c Curtis b Young?.....................................21
Turner c Lyttle b Caffell...................................?.33
Phelps c and b Young?......................................86
Patton c Young b Rance................................?.130
De Terte c Stoneley b James?...........................21
Calkin c Hannam b Caffell?..............................55
Furlong not out?..........................................?..17
Tairoa not out?.....................................................1
Extras...............................................................?15
Total for 6wkts dec.......................................?..380
Fall: 51, 77, 235, 266, 322, 376
Bowling:Rance 18-1-74-1, James 24-4-105-1, Watt 14-3-68-0, Caffell 11-1-42-2, Irvine 4-2-5-0, Young 22-7-68-2, Curtis 2-0-6-0.
WAIRARAPA
First Innings
Hannam c Phelps b McLennan?.......................11
Curtis b Kuru?......................................................1
Stoneley c Phelps b McLennan?.........................6
Irvine b McLennan?.............................................0
Anderson c Phelps b Furlong?............................1
Young c Phelps b McNaughton?......................?8
Lyttle c Patton b Pryor?.......................................7
Stone c Phelps b Pryor?.....................................2
Rance not out?..................................................27
James b McNaughton?.......................................3
Watt c Kuru b Furlong......................................?.2
Extras?...........................................................?15
Total:................................................................... 83
Fall: 9. 20, 20, 28, 34, 45, 51, 51, 66, 83
McLennan 13-5-18-3, Kuru 11-5-16-1, McNaughton 9-5-18-2, Furlong 4-2-17-2, Pryor 2.4-1-5-2, Calkin 0.2-0-0-0.
Second innings
Hannam c Pimm b McLennan.........................?..6
Curtis lbw b McLennan?..................................108
Stoneley c Calkin b McNaughton.....................?.8
Stone lbw b Furlong?..........................................5
Irvine c Phelps b McLennan...........................?.32
Anderson c Phelps b Kuru................................?.9
Rance b Kuru?.....................................................4
Lyttle not out?....................................................27
Young c Patton b Kuru......................................?.4
James not out?..................................................37
Extras??...........................................................18
Total for 8wkts...........................................??.258
Fall: 8, 49, 75, 168, 179, 188, 187, 203
Bowling: McLennan 16-2-41-3, Kuru 19-4-44-3, McNaughton 13-0-40-1, Furlong 19-0, 79-1, Calkin 5-01-30-0, Tairoa 3-0-9-0, Turner 1-1-0-0.