Result v Taranaki

Firstly, a big thanks to Emma Law and Tania Cole who organised the after-match function. The food was fantastic, thank you again. Kelvin Stevenson was also a great help with both scoring and umpiring. With these type of fixtures all the help we can get is very much appreciated.

The Taranaki team travelled up late yesterday (Saturday) and were billeted out with our boys over-night. From all reports the billeting was much enjoyed by both our family hosts and the boys being billeted.

The match was played in good spirit. Taranaki batted well and took advantage of a fast and bumpy outfield to post a good score of 243/8 in 40 overs.

Jack Collinson had a great day with the ball and Angus pulled off two fantastic slip catches. Gray's bowling was tight, and Ashton chimed in with some wickets.

We probably bowled too many loose balls that were hit away. Our focus should be on bowling a good line and length, putting pressure on the batsmen and as the pressure builds from a lack of runs being scored wickets will come as the batsmen are forced into errors.

It was great to see a couple of our boys with real batting potential, Gray Hardy and Nathaniel Law bat so well.

After 20 overs, we were 102/4 and we had a platform to go for the target. Unfortunately though in losing those four wickets we had two run-outs and we lost a bit of batting "firepower".

The bowling after the drinks break was tight and with-in five overs it became inevitable that the target was going to be too much. Everyone down to number 11 got a chance to bat, and that complimented the bowling, where all 11 of our boys had a chance to bowl (even the wicket-keeper!).

We closed at 166/9, a pretty reasonable score in 40 overs.

The Taranaki boys were a year older, many now in Year 8 at School, and given that age difference we competed well.

The one thing to take away - the learning experience - relates to our bowling, we need to work on hitting a consistent line and length, restricting runs and building pressure.

As mentioned above, the after-match went well. All the feedback I had from the Taranaki team was that they had very much enjoyed the whole trip, the billeting, the cricket, the after-match and the whole experience. We'll attempt to continue this fixture in future years.


Taranaki 243/8 in 40 overs (Jack Collinson, 4ov, 2-6, Gray Hardy, 6ov, 0-18, Ashton Howard, 5ov, 3-40)

North Harbour 166/9 in 40 overs (Gray Hardy 24 (20), Nathaniel Law 46 ret (49).