Cricket: Hawke's Bay senior men's team overwhelm Horowhenua-Kapiti in Levin

Central Districts red-ball merchant Bradley Schmulian gave an all-round performance for the Hawke's Bay senior men with runs and wickets. Photo / Margot Butcher, supplied

The Hawke's Bay senior men are back on track after posting an outright victory in the penultimate round of the Furlong Cup competition to see who earns the right for a Hawke Cup Challenge, the symbol of minor association cricket supremacy in New Zealand.

The Pay Excellence-sponsored side beat Horowhenua-Kapiti by an innings and 49 runs at Donnelly Park, Levin, on Sunday.

"We'll be up there," said returning first-choice captain Jacob Smith after fellow Central Hawke's Bay batsman Dominic Thompson had been at the helm while Smith nursed a knee injury.

The Dave Castle-coached Bay men were in third place after a first-innings loss to Taranaki in the opening round in October and then rain thwarting an outright win against Whanganui.

Smith said where they would finish on the standings as CD contenders would depend on other results over the weekend.

The Bay had skittled Horowhenua-Kapiti for 113 runs in their first innings, with No 9 Carter Andrews top-scoring with 45 on Saturday.

They then posted 7-307 and declared after 51 overs, with CD Stags trio Bradley Schmulian (77 runs), Kieran Noema-Barnett (49) and Christian Leopard (47) providing the platform.

Leg spinner Jayden Lennox (above) matched fellow CD Stags squad member Ben Stoyanoff in helping skittle Horowhenua-Kapiti. Photo / File

Horowhenua-Kapiti managed 145 runs in their second dig, Carter Andrews consistently top-scoring with 30 and 45 runs at No 8 and No 9 respectively in each innings, his batting specialist teammates seeming to have left their willows at home.

The Stags pair of spinner Jayden Lennox (4-24, 3-33) and seamer Ben Stoyanoff (2-26,
5-37) were the chief destroyers with the ball, while Schmulian backed up well with 2-10 and 1-24 respectively from his tweakers.

For Horowhenua-Kapiti, new-ball merchant Fraser Bartholomew took 5-91 to be the most effective and economical for the hosts.

Xitij Sakhalkar backed up with 1-25 but their seven-pronged bowling attack struggled to contain the rampant Bay batsmen.