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By Vincent Jones
Curtis Heaphy’s maiden century and five-wicket hauls to Simon Keene and Peter Younghusband were the highlights of Round Four.
Auckland Aces vs Canterbury:
Simon Keene led a superb bowling attack at Auckland’s adopted home ground of Bay Oval in Tauranga as he grabbed his maiden List A five-wicket haul.
Being sent into bat first, Canterbury’s top order wobbled as Chad Bowes, Rhys Mariu, and Mitch Hay all went for ducks to Keene as the visitors slipped to 15/3 in the fifth over.
Speedster Lockie Ferguson kept on with the superb start with the ball for Auckland, grabbing Cole McConchie and Michael Rippon, whilst Keene had a fourth as Henry Nicholls edged one behind to Cam Fletcher, Canterbury sitting at 31/6 after ten overs.
Having faced a shell-shocking opening spell, it was going to be up to the lower order to resurrect the innings and work towards a defendable total. Matt Boyle did take the attack to Keene’s sixth over with 18 runs coming off it.
The luck for Boyle didn’t last much longer, with Jimmy Nessahm striking in his second over to have Canterbury seven down.
There was a restoration between Angus McKenzie and Zak Foulkes, with both of them scoring in the 20’s as Canterbury managed to push their way past the 100-run mark.
Keene picked up the final wicket of the innings as Foulkes tried to take him on but instead found the hands of Jock McKenzie to be bundled out for 109 and a maiden five-wicket bag for Keene.
Auckland’s batting innings did lose captain Finn Allen early for three, but it was never going to face many challenges once the batters got settled in.
Sean Solia (45), Will O’Donnell (29), and Michael Sclanders (21*) got their side home to victory as they chased down the revised target, due to rain, of 108 to take a seven-wicket win.
Northern Districts vs Wellington Firebirds:
Going into the clash in Hamilton, both sides were sitting in the middle of the table and would have viewed this clash as an important one to win.
Whilst Wellington got off to a slow start with the bat, only taking 33 runs from the powerplay, there was the bonus of no wickets lost.
Even when the wickets did start to fall, with Brett Hampton grabbing the first two of Tim Robinson and Nick Greenwood for 28 and 19, respectively, they did not upset the way Wellington went about their innings.
Neil Wagner then had two in relatively quick succession as Troy Johnson (36) and Nick Kelly (15) fell to leave Wellington in a bit of trouble at 113/4.
Young batter Muhammad Abbas showed his well-known class with an innings of 79 from just 70 balls at number five, his highest List A score.
Abbas’ innings received some solid support from Callum McLachlan (24) and Nathan Smith (17), but once all three players fell, it wasn’t long before Wellington’s innings was over.
The visitors eventually folded for 248 from 48.3 overs, with Fergus Lellman grabbing two tail-ender wickets of Logan van Beek and Adam Milne.
Northern’s troubles at the top of the order once again showed as Smith had two wickets inside the first ten overs as Katene Clarke and Tim Seifert fell for eight and two, respectively. There was some good pressure applied from the Wellington opening bowlers of Smith and Milne.
Just as Northern had been looking like they’d be getting their chase on the right track, Lellman departed for 41 as van Beek trapped him leg before for 41.
This soon saw a wee middle-order wobble and started to send the game in Wellington’s way as Peter Younghusband had Robbie O’Donnell for 36 and Scott Kuggeleigjn for a duck. Henry Cooper also went to van Beek for 15, and Milne had Raval for a duck.
Northern’s innings quickly went from 103/3 to 108/7, and they were going to need some serious lower-order innings if they wanted to take the win.
It was looking like the hosts could take the victory through a record eighth-wicket partnership against Wellington for Northern, with Hampton’s 53 from 36 and Kristian Clarke’s 37 from 36 nearly seeing their side home.
However, if it wasn’t for the value of Younghusband, who grabbed a maiden List A five-wicket haul to have the Northern innings all over on 199, a different result could very well have occurred.
Otago Volts vs Central Stags:
The Central Stags were going into the clash having only two points on the board, coming from the no result that they had against Wellington on the weekend. Otago, on the other hand, had won their first fixture but came into the match off two losses.
Youngster Curtis Heaphy was going to be the star of the day when he strolled to the crease with a maiden List A century coming his way.
Heaphy’s ton wasn’t going to not come with support from his top order and opener Brad Schmulian teamed up with him in a 144-run opening stand that the Otago bowlers had no real answer to.
Matters would just carry on with the ball as Jack Boyle played a well-paced innings of 53 from 42 balls before falling to Jake Gibson with just over 11 overs to go and 233 runs on the board.
Wickets were picked up over the last ten overs, but they were mainly due to the attempt at trying to attack and push for runs in the last ten overs.
Tom Bruce (7), Josh Clarkson (11), and Dane Cleaver (19) did manage to stick alongside Heaphy to get the Stags through to 330 for the loss of seven from their 50 overs.
Heaphy did fall in the penultimate over for 142, with Gibson finishing with three wickets, whilst Luke Georgeson, Dean Foxcroft, and Ben Lockrose all grabbed one each.
With the bat, it was going to be up to Otago’s top order to give them a chance of chasing down the total.
There had looked to be some early success from Thorn Parkes, but he did lose opening partner Dale Phillips for 14.
Llew Johnson put on a stable stand with Parkes, but when both fell alongside Leo Carter in relatively quick succession, it was clear that the game was falling to the visitors.
Some middle-order support by Georgeson and Max Chu ensured that Otago’s innings didn’t completely collapse, but once Chu was dismissed, it wasn’t too much longer until the game was over.
Stags captain Jayden Lennox finished with three wickets, whilst Blair Tickner and Will Clark both got two. Parkes’ 59 at the top was the highest score for Otago in the match.
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