Cricket: Central and Geyser JPC win semi-finals

Bay of Plenty Indians batsman Shivam Passi turns to see his bails tumbling as he is bowled out by Satpal Singh of Geyser City John Paul College Old Boys. Photo / Stephen Parker

Central Cricket Club and Geyser City John Paul College Old Boys will be working hard in the nets this week after qualifying for the Rotorua/Taupo Senior Reserve Grade cricket final.

In the semi-finals on Saturday, Central played Lake Taupo in Taupo while Geyser JPC played defending champions Bay of Plenty Indians in Rotorua.

Central batted first and looked to be in trouble at 45/4, but Nathan Hall made sure his side posted a competitive total with a blistering innings of 99 off 82 balls, including eight fours and three sixes.

While he may have mixed feelings after falling one run short of a century, his 106-run partnership with fellow middle-order batsman Aaron Bennett (47) helped give his side a decent total of 248 to defend.

The other top scorers for Central were FG Gous (27), Ryan Neves (22) and Sam Gordon (14*). The pick of the bowlers for Lake Taupo was Darryn Wilkins who took four wickets for 25 runs, including the major scalp of Hall on 99.

Central's Ben Fraser, who went out for a duck in opening the batting, made amends later as he tore through the Lake Taupo top-order batsmen. He had the top three batsmen walking back to the pavilion with scores of 10, 8 and 2 respectively and went on to finish with five wickets for 35 runs.

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Posted by Geyser City Cricket on Friday, 8 December 2017

Alex Davey was the top scorer for Lake Taupo with 40 runs, while Wilkins backed up a good day with the ball by scoring 32 not out. However, their efforts were not enough as they were all out for 196 runs and Central had booked a spot in the final with a 52-run win.

Meanwhile, the other semi-final was a lower-scoring affair as Bay of Plenty Indians won the toss and elected to bat. They were made to rue the decision as they were put to the sword by a spirited bowling and fielding performance by Geyser JPC.

Indians' top scorer was Vinay Pathania (17) as the defending champions were all out for 116 runs. Geyser JPC bowlers Satpal Singh, Connor Scott-Moore and Liam Kelly took two wickets each, all with impressive economy rates, and Karamvir Singh Benipal led with three wickets for 17 runs.

The Geyser JPC batsmen got off to a nervy start, their top four scoring just 17 runs between them, but Kelly (17) steadied the ship before Manny Kumar (14*) and Singh (34*) finished the job for a five-wicket victory. Neeraj Kumar and Navpreet Singh took two wickets each for Indians.

Rotorua/Taupo Senior Reserve Grade semi-final results

Central CC 248/8 (Nathan Hall 99, FG Gous 27, Ryan Neves 22; Darryn Wilkins 4/25) defeated Lake Taupo CC 196 (Alex Davey 40, Darryn Wilkins 32*; Ben Fraser 5/35)

Geyser City John Paul College Old Boys 120/5 (Satpal Singh 34*, Liam Kelly 17, Manny Kumar 14*; Neeraj Kumar 2/25 , Navpreet Singh 2/24) defeated Bay of Plenty Indians 116 (Vinay Pathania 17; Karamvir Singh Benipal 3/17)