Tech's Jessica Watkin about to give up a caught and bowled to Kapiti Old Boys Martin Harrison. Watkin would have her revenge with three wickets in one over to seal the win.
Tech's Jessica Watkin about to give up a caught and bowled to Kapiti Old Boys Martin Harrison. Watkin would have her revenge with three wickets in one over to seal the win.
Watson's Tech and Property Brokers United got their Bullocks Coastal Challenge Cup campaigns off to winning starts on Saturday, with a season opener day able to get underway at Victoria Park for the first time in several summers.
After years of rain outs or matches being held on the artificial wickets at Springvale Stadium, Tech were able to put stumps down in front of the main grandstand against Kapiti Old Boys, and pulled out a 32 run win in a low-scoring match.
Tech made a good start at 49-0 with their jetlagged Canadian teenagers Akhil Kumar (31) and Harkaran Mann (18), with allrounder Ross Kinnerley ultimately batting through to be unbeaten on 64, supported by Dominic Lock (20) who came back from Waikato University at 10pm on Friday night.
However, after the openers went, spinner Martin Harrison (3-24) came on and got Lock sky a delivery straight up, and then shortly afterwards Whanganui's White Fern Jessica Watkin received a cleverly disguised slower ball that took an age to arrive which she ultimately hit back to Harrison.
Kapiti would come to regret their delighted whoops at Watkin's dismissal when the ball was in her hands.
Following that moment, Tech might have felt more at home on the Whanganui River, where the annual yellow mother duck race was being held, as four of them were dismissed without scoring, three off the first ball, as Carter Andrews (5-34) destroyed the tail.
Ross Kinnerley just makes his ground during his crucial innings of 64 not out.
Nonethless, Kapiti had fallen short of a similar run chase target the weekend before against Wereroa, and again it proved to be a short afternoon as Tech's bowling attack picked off the top order and then wickets tumbled regularly after that.
Perhaps remembering their dynamic comeback win in January 2016 on the same ground against Kapiti, Tech decided to get their strike bowlers to use up their full 10 overs right away, with Fraser Kinnerley (2-48) and Akash Gill (3-56) bowling out, while Ross Kinnerley (2-18) had four left up his sleeve.
The result was Kapiti were seven wickets down with 30 required and looking to inch their way home against Tech's second tier bowlers.
Kumar sent down an over, and then Watkin stepped up with her spinners.
Wicket, wicket, dot ball, dot ball, wicket and the match was over.
"It was a nail-biting finish, it was tight. They were trying to hit every ball for a boundary, which is their way," said Tech manager Andrew Lock.
In the derby match over on the Collegiate No 3 ground, Property Brokers United welcomed the schoolboys back to Coastal Challenge with a six wicket defeat.
Collegiate had a good start with an 82 run partnership from Sam Sherriff (45) and Charlie Greatbatch (34), until United swung the momentum when the returning Chris Sharrock (3-39) got Greatbatch and Harry Godfrey in the space of three balls with nicks to wicketkeeper Josh Goleby in the 19th over.
United captain Tom Lance bowled Sherriff the following over, before Collegiate had another dig through allrounders Ben Kelt (34) and Hadleigh O'Leary (20) to steer their team to the 34th over.
But then another veteran spinner in Robbie Power (3-34) stamped his mark by removing both set batsmen, while Beau Hourigan kept a quick pace with two boundaries for a run-a-ball 18 until Sharrock had his stumps.
That let Power and pace bowler James Pennefather (2-21) have a go at the exposed lower order and other than Henry Kilmister's defiant 15, they were chipped out quickly to finish short of batting their time and reaching the 200 mark.
As he did last summer, Lance has opened up in fine form, scoring an unbeaten 100 from 106 balls, with eight boundaries and a six, to carry his team to the winning runs in the 43rd over.
United gave their new Marton Saracens recruits Scott Oliver and Andre Canderle first opportunities up the top of the order, and although they were dismissed in the teens, their role was just to support Lance while he kept the scoreboard ticking over.
From 80-2, Gerard Hobbs (33) then looked to bat through with Lance, hitting three boundaries, until Kelt (2-30) sparked a small comeback for the 1st XI by having Hobbs caught and then getting Goleby to give up a nick behind in his next over.
But from 142-4, Power supported Lance with an unbeaten 12 for the pair to polish off the last 49 runs required, with Collegiate ultimately using nine bowlers at the crease.
Down at Kena Kena Park, two time defending champions Paraparaumu CC took away Marist's early cause for optimism with a quick six wicket win, wrapping up their run chase by the 29th over.
Marist are hopeful to access some heavyweight names this season, but Craig Clare was still on the rugby pitch, Dominic Rayner remains in the United States, while Ben Smith and Brett Cameron have bigger horizons to conquer currently.
Of the remainder, Marist lost openers Michael O'Leary and Chris Stewart by the third over, before Zak O'Keeffe dug in with a very promising 65 from 61 balls, with nine boundaries and a six.
He and veteran Mark Fraser (33) put on a 90 run partnership, before Paraparaumu captain Nigel Harvey (4-47) stepped up and removed both of them singled handed, with O'Keeffe losing his stumps and Fraser hitting the ball back to the bowler.
Marist initially seemed like they could weather the storm as John McIlraith (12), Nic O'Leary (34 not out) and Nick Harding (22) all got set at the crease, Harding his usual exuberant self with four boundaries in his 21 ball-knock.
But Paraparaumu then stranded O'Leary, as Harvey got McIlraith and Harding, and then pace bowler Arne Murray (3-4) ripped through the lower order in the space of three overs, leaving Marist's potential recovery to a 210-220 score well short at 178.
The home team's openers Jake Ross (20) and Ajay Kumar (22) were not afraid to play some shots, which made sense given Marist would send down a costly 24 wides amongst the six bowlers used.
Top batsman Andre Halbert (57) then carried on, striking four boundaries and three sixes, and although Nic O'Leary (2-37) eventually got him caught out and picked up James Logan (12) on a caught behind, Rory Lorimer (38 not out) just worked his team through to the winning runs in quick order.
Michael Engelbrecht had a tough afternoon with 30 runs taken from his two overs.
The other games were Horowhenua-Kapiti teams travelling over to meet the Wairarapa newcomers, and Weraroa picked up a comfortable six wicket win over Red Star in Greytown.
Scoreboard Tech 159 (R Kinnerley 64no, A Kumar 38, D Lock 20; C Andrews 5-34, M Harrison 3-24) bt Kapiti Old Boys 127 (C Andrews 30, M Harrison 21; J Watkin 3-0, A Gill 3-56, R Kinnerley 2-18, F Kinnerley 2-48) by 32 runs.
Collegiate 190 (S Sherriff 45, C Greatbatch 34, B Kelt 34, H O'Leary 20; R Power 3-34, C Sharrock 3-39, J Pennefather 2-21) lost to United 191-4 (T Lance 100no, G Hobbs 33; B Kelt 2-30) by six wickets.
Marist 178 (Z O'Keeffe 65, N O'Leary 34no, M Fraser 33, Nick Harding 22; N Harvey 4-47, A Murray 3-4) lost to Paraparaumu 180-4 (A Halbert 57, R Lorimer 38no, A Kumar 22, J Ross 20; N O'Leary 2-37) by six wickets.
Red Star 202 (R French 47, D Stoneley 41, L Dingle 39, T Russo 20; C O'Connell 5-30, A Simonsen 3-25) lost to Weraroa 203-4 (M Good 111, C Trask 34no, A Simonsen 30) by six wickets.
