All Round Team Effort Secures Second Win
Saturday saw our premier side head across town to take on Woodleigh on their newly laid artificial pitch and upon arriving to the ground, the weather was a little average, but this did not stop umpire Tony Boshier from getting the game underway on time.
Jarred Cunningham met Woodleigh captain Shaun Sullivan in the middle for the coin toss full of confidence following a win at the toss last week and a 90% success rate last year, however the unorthodox coin throw by “Sully” as he is affectionately known, threw Cunningham off who proceeded to get the call wrong. The toss was won by Woodleigh who strangely elected to bowl first, much to the delight of the NPMUCC captain who later admitted he would have chosen to bat first anyway.
Out went Ryan Fleming and Dean Robinson to get us underway with a game plan that involved ignoring the mouth-watering short straight boundaries.
Regrettably, Robinson fell quickly to a sublime piece of bowling by Woodleigh spearhead, Taylor Williams. Fleming on the other hand couldn’t shake the attention the short boundaries were giving him as he proceeded to smack a quick fire 36 off just 25 balls, with every single run being scored in boundaries (6x4’s & 2x6’s). Unfortunately, Fleming perhaps got a little carried away and was caught at mid-on trying to reach the boundary for the third time in the over. Score at that stage was 50-2 after just 6 overs.
Kurt Leuthart & Jarred Cunningham then joined together in the middle and went about building their innings with a focus on patience, discipline and rotating the strike, which to their credit they did exceptionally well.
Both Leuthart and Cunningham were dished up a few free hits, Cunningham made the most of his hitting consecutive maximums, whilst Leuthart didn’t get the memo as he squeezed a couple singles off his two freebies.
Before long the pair had put on 100 run partnership and things were looking good at 160-2 off just 30 overs. However, this is when the wheels fell off which is no coincidence that it is also when Mitch Proffit was introduced to the bowling crease.
Proffit used his lack of pace and flight well as the NPMUCC batsmen looked to target him and the short boundary but all failing to do little more than hitting a 6 and then getting out trying to repeat the dose. Leuthart his first victim bowling him through the gate for a well-made 44 off 75 balls. He then had Andrew Kelly caught at cover off the same over and Cunningham caught at long on the next over. Cunningham’s innings ending at 68 off 81 balls and the score at that point was 169-5 after 32.
Ryan Watson and last week’s hero Josh Barrett joined for a few runs (31 and 18 respectively) but didn’t hang around long enough to do any real damage. NPMUCC ended the innings all out for 247 off 49 overs and probably 100 runs less than what they were on track for which was a disappointing finish after such a promising platform. Mitch Proffit ended the innings with career best figures of 5-51 off 10 - well bowled that man.
At the lunch break the brains trust got together knowing full well the target set was gettable and came up with a few ideas which included Josh Barrett bowling from his less preferred end and Cunningham taking the other end with his nude offies.
It worked almost immediately though, both bowlers bowling maidens in their first overs and then Barrett caught the outside edge of Woodleigh’s new recruit Jesse Vertongen who was gobbled up at gully by Ryan Fleming. Score at that stage 1-0 off 3.
Before long NPMUCC had Woodleigh 35-2 after 11 and the key pairing of Sullivan and Phillip Barraclough at the crease for Woodleigh.
Ryan Watson was then introduced with the sole responsibility to break the partnership which he promptly did cleaning up Barraclough’s stumps and his toe in the process.
Cunningham then turned to his number 1 offie, Michael Blanks who yet again put on a masterclass in spin bowling, bowling his 10 overs on the trott, picking up 3-37 including the wicket of key batsmen Sullivan.
Woodleigh struggled to put any real partnerships together as NPMUCC continued to build pressure by bowling exceptional line and length and as a result took wickets at regular intervals and although some lusty hitting later in the innings saw Woodleigh deny NPMUCC a bonus point win they weren’t really in the hunt. A win to NPMUCC by 47 runs (Cunningham 68, Leuthart 44, Fleming 36, Watson 31, Proffit 5-51, - Proffit 44, Sullivan 41, Watson 4-47, Blanks 3-37, Barrett 2-24).
In the other games only two of the three games were played with the Hawera weather not allowing them to take on Stratford. Both sides coming off losses last week would have fancied their chances so it’s unfortunate the weather didn’t allow any play as both team would have been desperate for some points but they won’t be to disheartened by it, sharing 2 points each, and with the way the other results went.
Inglewood hosted NPBHS at Karo park and somewhat cruised to victory over the school side. Inglewood batting first posted a modest total of 217 thanks mainly to Brent Stevens who made the most of his promotion up the order to score 82 off 101 balls whilst a couple of handy contributions from Aaron Zame (28), Jason Dombroski (21) and Clint Frost (20) put the icing on the cake.
Perhaps the highlight of the innings was the bowling effort of youngster Jack Parker who rolled his way through the Inglewood middle order with ease, finishing his 10 overs with 5 for 29 which was largely helped by the sharp work behind the sticks from wicketkeeper Sam Darth who snared three grabs up at the stumps.
NPBHS may have fancied their chances of chasing 217 after last week’s effort against competitions favourites Old Boys, however no one really got going with Zach Betteridge top scoring for the school side coming in at 10 and powering his way to a useful 38. Aaron Taylor doing most of the damage with his left arm tweakers opening the bowling for Inglewood, ending up grabbing 4-14 off 8 overs and was supported nicely by the rest of the bowling group who didn’t have as much success with the wickets, but were equally as economical. Boys High were bowled out for 115. A win to Inglewood by 102 runs which sees them sit 1st equal at the top of the table with Old Boys. (Stevens 82, Parker 5-29-10 - Betteridge 38, Taylor 4-14-8).
In the last game of the round, Old Boys hosted FDMC at Western park which perhaps may have highlighted why artificial pitches are preferred at this time of year as Old boys rolled through the college side for just 34 runs.
Old Boys import Ross Bryans doing majority of the damage taking 4 for 3 off just 5 overs. Old Boys chased the total down for the loss of 1 wicket to pick up the bonus point win and head to the top of the table with Inglewood.
Points after two rounds:
1st = NPOB & Inglewood: 10 points
3rd NPMUCC: 9 Points
4th Woodleigh: 5 points
5th = Stratford & Hawera: 2 Points
7th = NPBHS & FDMC: 0 Points
EdiTaur
