Wonderful weather and setting for our games against Manukau. Their teams were made up of players from Howick Pakuranga and Papatoetoe Cricket Clubs. They had selected and A and B sides whereas we were happy to remain with our even teams and therefore, knew that potentially we could have had anything from a really hard game to a relatively easy one ... as it happened, this is pretty much the way it ended up. However, that is to take away nothing from either our sides or the Manukau teams.
Their A team set Don's XI a daunting target of 142 from 28 overs. Batting first, Manukau started their innings slowly and surely and we were complimented on our tight bowling and field settings. However, they built on this base and we started to get flustered and tried to bowl too quick - we ended up spraying the ball around and bowling too short (17 No Balls is too many at this level against a team like this) and they went to town on the latter part of their innings with our fielding losing its' shape a little as we got a little bit ragged and under pressure. We then went to bat and whilst, Jake Skellern and Reid Hastie kept their wickets safe, we got bogged down by some very tidy slow bowling. We had set ourselves some batting targets and after 10 overs were already behind our target by 25 runs and by 15 overs were 31 runs down. These are obviously meant to be a guide but, we do need to start thinking about where we are and how we can move forward. To their credit though, they bowled and fielded very well however, we never really looked like we were going to threaten them despite a last gasp swashbuckle from Oliver Peterson and Cole Briggs (Man of the Match). We finished on 102/3 after the 28 overs. A good learning experience for us and hopefully when the dust settles, we can sit down and think through some of our decisions and perhaps, how we might have done things differently.
In the other game, the roles were reversed as Colin's XI put their B team to the sword. Regular wickets and continued pressure in the field. It was only a last wicket partnership of 32 that held us up. They finished on 71 all out - we only bowled 9 extras. Their team currently plays in their prem grade but, due to a mix up at registration time, have been graded outside the top league. They have won all their games against 3rd and 4th teams with great ease and this was an eye opening experience for them. We knocked the runs off in the 20th over with the loss of only 4 wickets. We probably have not learnt a huge amount from this game but, we did bowl very well (Eru Hudson and Max Lewis taking 3 wickets each) and Eru Hudson looked at ease with the bat and deservedly too the Man of the Match medal. It was good to see both Kieran Seedall and Ben Beecroft settle in to the team well and I hope that they get a chance to play again at some point in the future.
Don's XI v. Manukau A
Manukau A 141/4 (Asher Robb 3 overs 0/2, Donald Coleman 3 overs 2/24, Oliver Peterson 4 overs 1/14 and Jake Skellern 2 overs 1/18)
Don's XI 102/3 (Reid Hastie 29 Not Out, Cole Briggs 19 Not Out, Oliver Peterson 12 Not Out)
Manukau A won by 39 runs
Colins XI v. Manukau B
Manukau B 71 All Out (Max Lewis 3 overs 3/4, Eru Hudson 3 overs 3/8, Jack Stevenson 3 overs 1/9, Kieran Seedall 3 overs 1/9 and Ben Beecroft 2 overs 1/10)
Colins XI 72/4 (Eru Hudson 25 Not Out, Luke Dewar 14 and Steven Newey 15)
Colin's XI won by 6 wickets
Their A team set Don's XI a daunting target of 142 from 28 overs. Batting first, Manukau started their innings slowly and surely and we were complimented on our tight bowling and field settings. However, they built on this base and we started to get flustered and tried to bowl too quick - we ended up spraying the ball around and bowling too short (17 No Balls is too many at this level against a team like this) and they went to town on the latter part of their innings with our fielding losing its' shape a little as we got a little bit ragged and under pressure. We then went to bat and whilst, Jake Skellern and Reid Hastie kept their wickets safe, we got bogged down by some very tidy slow bowling. We had set ourselves some batting targets and after 10 overs were already behind our target by 25 runs and by 15 overs were 31 runs down. These are obviously meant to be a guide but, we do need to start thinking about where we are and how we can move forward. To their credit though, they bowled and fielded very well however, we never really looked like we were going to threaten them despite a last gasp swashbuckle from Oliver Peterson and Cole Briggs (Man of the Match). We finished on 102/3 after the 28 overs. A good learning experience for us and hopefully when the dust settles, we can sit down and think through some of our decisions and perhaps, how we might have done things differently.
In the other game, the roles were reversed as Colin's XI put their B team to the sword. Regular wickets and continued pressure in the field. It was only a last wicket partnership of 32 that held us up. They finished on 71 all out - we only bowled 9 extras. Their team currently plays in their prem grade but, due to a mix up at registration time, have been graded outside the top league. They have won all their games against 3rd and 4th teams with great ease and this was an eye opening experience for them. We knocked the runs off in the 20th over with the loss of only 4 wickets. We probably have not learnt a huge amount from this game but, we did bowl very well (Eru Hudson and Max Lewis taking 3 wickets each) and Eru Hudson looked at ease with the bat and deservedly too the Man of the Match medal. It was good to see both Kieran Seedall and Ben Beecroft settle in to the team well and I hope that they get a chance to play again at some point in the future.
Don's XI v. Manukau A
Manukau A 141/4 (Asher Robb 3 overs 0/2, Donald Coleman 3 overs 2/24, Oliver Peterson 4 overs 1/14 and Jake Skellern 2 overs 1/18)
Don's XI 102/3 (Reid Hastie 29 Not Out, Cole Briggs 19 Not Out, Oliver Peterson 12 Not Out)
Manukau A won by 39 runs
Colins XI v. Manukau B
Manukau B 71 All Out (Max Lewis 3 overs 3/4, Eru Hudson 3 overs 3/8, Jack Stevenson 3 overs 1/9, Kieran Seedall 3 overs 1/9 and Ben Beecroft 2 overs 1/10)
Colins XI 72/4 (Eru Hudson 25 Not Out, Luke Dewar 14 and Steven Newey 15)
Colin's XI won by 6 wickets
Well done to both teams, this is a learning year for the boys and both teams will need to take the positives and the negatives from their games and look to the future. The results are supplementary to the knowledge that they will get from playing stronger (and to a lesser extent weaker) teams. I really enjoy being a part of this squad and feel that we have a fantastic set of boys - the team spirit is good and we look like we enjoy our cricket. Keep up the good work.
Posts
