Grammar, Kings and St Peters pick up outrights

Monday, 19 March 2012

Premier A: Two-Day Championship - Round One

Mt Albert Grammar v Westlake Boys High School- Westlake 1

Westlake Boys wrapped up first innings points comfortably on day two thanks to a nine over burst from Manaia Harris that accounted for three wickets for only 12 runs. He was assisted by all-rounder Mitchell Atkins who finished with the figures of 3/10. Westlake batted out the rest of the day in accumulating 74 for the loss of 3 wickets.

Westlake Boys 105 (Brett Randell 6/18) and 74/3 defeated Mt Albert Grammar 82 (Manaia Harris 3/12, Mitchell Atkins 3/10) on first innings.

Sacred Heart College v Auckland Grammar - Sacred 1

It was steady as she goes for Sacred Heart early on day two as they attempted to eat up the overs trying to negate Auckland Grammar's opportunity to make any inroads towards their total. However wickets kept falling, with nobody in the batting line-up able to hold off a determined Grammar bowling attack. Dane Watson was the best for Grammar with 3/32 and when the Sacred Heart innings came ot a close it left the visitors needing 171 off 34 overs.

Auckland Grammar's initial momentum was halted by an early wicket in the second over, but despite the excellent form of Jacob O'Callaghan (4/44), Sacred Heart were finding it difficult to stem the flow of runs from Shikar Chaturvedi (39*), Shawn Hicks (40) and Cam Armstrong (53). Despite that, the game was delicately balanced with no more than the minimum required run rate of 5 an over being achieved. The spectators were treated to some entertaining cricket as the game ebbed and flowed. With four over's to go a sublime six from Tom Reesby swung the momentum in favour of Grammar and with two over's to play they achieved the target with four wickets in hand.

Sacred Heart 82 (Ganesh Ratnasabapathy 3/14) and 149 (Dane Watson 3/32) lost to Auckland Grammar 61 (Tom Ritchie 3/3) and 172/6 (Cameron Armstrong 53, Shawn Hicks 40, Shikar Chaturvedi 39*, Jacob O'Callaghan 4/44) outright by four wickets.

MacLeans College v Kings College - MacLeans 1

Kings began the day with Ben Turner and Tom Donnelly batting well to stretch the lead from the 45 they'd started with. The Macleans bowling was not as testing as it had been last week and both batsmen took advantage. Dylan McGall picked up a five wicket haul and deprived Ben of a deserved fifty. Thus the King's lead was an encouraging 98 runs, a lead that would surely test Macleans.

In Harrison Nash's first over things began badly for the home side as he bowled Randhawa playing no shot. After that MacLeans built a number of small partnerships but clever captaincy and good bowling changes meant Kings were always picking up wickets and able to dismiss Macleans side for 143.
That left King's the apparently simple task of scoring 46 runs to claim all available points for the game.

Cricket games often contain twists and turns and this game was no exception with King's  losing four wickets in quick time. Cameron Gibbons mistimed a pull shot and succeeded only in lobbing the ball upwards for a simple catch. Sam Turner was yorked by Chris Dunn, Sam Klippel was bowled by a well disguised slower ball and Luke Williamson was given out caught at the wicket. It took a sensible stand between Harrison Nash and Ben Turner to remove any doubts in the minds of the home side's supporters. Both played some fine shots as the target was reached without any further mishaps.

Macleans College 80 (Luke Williamson 6/10) and 143 (Ben Turner 3/19) lost to Kings College 178 (Luke Williamson 40, Ben Turner 46*; Dylan McGall 5/56) and 46/4 outright by six wickets.

Points Table
Kings College 6, Auckland Grammar 4, Westlake 2, Sacred Heart 2, Mt Albert Grammar 0, MacLeans College 0


Premier A: Two-Day Plate - Round One

Rosmini v St Kentigern College - Rosmini 1

St Kentigern got on the board for this season against the defending Plate Champions Rosmini College. Two determined innings from Sam Gilmour (46) and Matt Ellis (50) were enough to see them chase down Rosmini's first innings. Connor Ridge was the home side's best bowler with figures of 3/49 but St Kentigern headed back across the bridge with first innings points, and will be hoping this is the kick start their season needed.

Rosmini College 226 (Dan Hilton Jones 60, Josh Du Rand 50; George Hollingsworth 5/39) lost to St Kentigern College 231/6 (Sam Gilmour 46, Matthew Ellis 50; Connor Ridge 3/49) on first innings.

Avondale College v Kelston Boys High School - Kelston 1

Kelston claimed bragging rights in this battle of the West Auckland schools. A fifty from opener Mark Van Tillburg was the only innings of note from Avondale as they fell short of Kelstons first innings total by 44 runs. Dylan Lombard was the star bowler for Kelston with 4/18 in only ten overs including the wicket of his brother Navan and Van Tillburg in the Avondale lineup.

Kelston Boys High School 184 (Tristan Payle 102; Harshal Vyas 5/34, Anas Patel 3/28) defeated Avondale 141 (Mark Van Tillburg 50; Dylan Lombard 4/18) on first innings.

St Peters College v Rangitoto College - Rangitoto 1

Rangitoto's woes with the bat continued as they lost outright by an innings and 14 runs to a dominant St Peters side. Ben Mana and Troy Brown combined to mop up the St Peters side quickly on day two leaving Rangitoto time to bat and make the game safe. George Hanham had other plans though and backed up his performance from day one, dismissing Rangitoto for only 36 to firmly place St Peters at the top of the points table.

Rangitoto College 67 (George Hanham 4/14) and 36 (George Hanham 3/12) lost to St Peters College 116 (Ben Mana 4/28, Troy Brown 3/15) outright by an innings and 13 runs.

Points Table
St Peters College 6, St Kentigern College 2, Kelston Boys High 2, Rosmini 0, Avondale 0, Rangitoto 0