Strong batting but no points for H-K
It was a better batting performance, but still no points for Horowhenua-Kapiti’s cricketers in the Furlong Cup over the weekend.
They were beaten in the first innings by Wairarapa, who hit 338 in reply to H-K’s 264 at Queen Elizabeth Park in Masterton.
Put into bat, H-K put together a collective batting display to amass their highest score of the season.
It featured seven double-figure scores, the best a 68-ball 75 from Jamie Pinfold, his highest for the district.
Pinfold, whose previous highest score in six innings this season was 23, scored 56 of his runs in boundaries.
Traditionally strong straight and through the offside, his innings also included two pull shots which cleared the boundary, a shot player-coach Ramesh Subasinghe said he had added to his armoury this season.
‘‘He’s naturally aggressive, but he’s been working really hard ... he made the bowlers bowl badly at him. I thought 100 was on the cards.’’
Subasinghe said the side achieved their aims get three partnerships of 50 or more, and to bat 70 overs.
He said he would have liked another half-century to push the score over 300.
Ryan McCone struck during the first over of Wairarapa’s reply, but his side was unable to make serious early inroads into the top order.
At 223-4 Wairarapa were cruising to first-innings points, with Liam Burling and Gordon Reisima enjoying a brisk 49-run partnership.
However, Burling’s dismissal sparked a collapse of 3-0 in six balls.
At lunch they were evenly poised - Wairarapa needed 30 runs and H-K three wickets.
However, Wairarapa wicketkeeper Paul Lyttle counterattacked decisively, hitting spinner Conor Beleski for 14 runs in the first over back.
McCone, Subasinghe and Fraser Bartholomew each conceded less than four runs per over, but Beleski, Liam Pinfold and Trent McGrath each went for 4.83 or more per over.
‘‘That was the problem unfortunately, that those guys as a collective group couldn’t maintain pressure,’’ Subasinghe said.
H-K were 196-7 in their second innings when the match ended early. Matt Good top-scored with 60.