Wairarapa wobbles to early woes

RELIEF: Stefan Hook-Sporry took a six-wicket bag for Wairarapa.PHOTO/FILE

Wairarapa were clearly on the back foot at the end of the first day's action in their Hawke Cup qualifying cricket match with Horowhenua-Kapiti at the Queen Elizabeth Park oval in Masterton on Saturday.

A total of 22 wickets fell on a pitch that produced a variable bounce, but while batsmen from both teams clearly struggled with the conditions it was Wairarapa who fared the worst, trailing by 98 runs on the first innings and then losing 2-14 in their second innings before stumps were drawn.

The home team were bowled out in just 41 overs in their first innings for a paltry 88. From the moment they lost their first wicket without a run on the board, they battled to make any headway against an accurate Horowhenua-Kapiti pace attack.

At 17-5, even getting to 50 looked a long way off and it was only useful contributions from Robbie Speers (27) and Gordon Reisima (31) that got them anywhere near the three-figure mark.

Speers was all dogged determination in a knock that saw him face 95 balls and strike just the one boundary, but Reisima was more aggressive in his approach, registering three fours and one six during his 28-ball stay at the crease.

Paceman Caleb Gaylard returned the impressive bowling figures of 5-26 off 18 overs for Horowhenua-Kapiti while his partner in crime, Matthew Bacon, finished with 4-17 from 10.4 overs.

Horowhenua-Kapiti seemed set to build a substantial first innings lead when their opening partnership put together 104 runs, but when top scorer Matthew Good was run out three runs later for 65 (93 balls, 12 fours and one six) after being caught napping through thinking the ball had gone over the boundary line the situation changed quite dramatically.

The remaining eight Horowhenua-Kapiti wickets fell for 79 runs to give them a lead of 98 on the first innings, a solid enough advantage but nowhere near as big as looked likely at Good's departure.

Highlight of the Wairarapa bowling effort was undoubtedly the effort of Stefan Hook-Sporry who ran in hard for all of his 18 overs and thoroughly deserved his figures of 6-51.

He maintained a persistent line and length, forcing the batsmen to play a high percentage of his deliveries.

Sean Jarvis was the seventh bowler used for Wairarapa and took 2-9 in his 5.4 overs and while youngster Drew MacDonald didn't manage a wicket in his debut, the promise was obvious.

For Wairarapa to get back into the game a strong start to their second innings was of prime importance but once again that failed to eventuate, both Brock Price and skipper Jamie Holmes being back in the pavilion when play ended with only 14 runs on the board, 13 of them from the bat of Sean Jarvis.

Short scoreboard of first day's play:

Wairarapa 88 (Jarvis 0, Price 1, Holmes 10, T.Burling 1, Speers 27, Lyttle 1, Thayer 5, L.Burling 0, Reisima 31, Hook-Sporry 0, James 4 not out, extras 8; fall of wickets, 0, 13,14, 15, 17, 43, 43, 66, 69, 88; Gaylard 18-7-26-5, Bacon 10.4-5-17-4, Strickland 10-2-29-1, Beleski 3-0-11-0) and 14-2 (Jarvis 13 not out, Price 0, Holmes 1, Thayer 0 not out; extras 0; fall of wickets, 7, 10; Gaylard 6-1-9-1, Bacon 4-2-5-0, Strickland 1-1-0-1) v Horowhenua-Kapiti 186 (Bowick 35, Good 65, Simonsen 8, Taylor 1, Sanson 25, Fowler 16, D.O'Brien 10, Strickland 7, N O'Brien 1, Gaylard 4, Bacon 2 not out; extras 12; fall of wickets, 104, 107, 112, 119, 156, 163, 171, 176, 179, 186; Hook-Sporry 18-2-51-6, MacDonald 7-3-18-0, Price 4-2-6-0, James 5-1-24-0, Holmes 11-1-58-1, Speers 2-1-10-0, Jarvis 5.4-3-9-2.)