Manawatu¯ into Cup semifinals
Manawatu¯ got their Chapple Cup campaign off to a strong start, beating Wanganui by six wickets in Napier yesterday.
But Manawatu¯ had to wait until last night to find out who they were to play in Saturday’s semifinal of the Central Districts oneday championship. With a new draw system this year, the four winners from Friday’s games would be drawn from a hat to see who would play who in the semifinals. The final is on Sunday.
Manawatu¯ bowled well to restrict Wanganui to just 156-9 from their 50 overs, then Dane Cleaver scored 64 and captain Mitch Renwick 42 not out to chase it down in 28 overs.
Manawatu¯ lost a couple of early wickets to be 24-2, but the two CD batsman got the job done.
‘‘It was a bit of a helter skelter start in terms of the run chase,’’ Renwick said. ‘‘We got off to a flier, then lost a couple of early wickets.
‘‘We had to soak up a bit of early pressure, Dane and myself. The way Dane plays he takes the pressure off scoring; he plays his natural game. We took it out of reach. Overall it was a really wellrounded performance.’’
There was some rain in the lunch break, so the covers were on briefly, which gave the pitch a bit of life in the second innings.
Renwick praised their bowling performance, in that they bowled in good areas and and found the right length on the wicket to make the Wanganui batsmen drive.
Earlier Wanganui battled their way through to 156-9 from their 50 overs as the Manawatu¯ seamers set them up well.
CD pacemen Navin Patel and Bevan Small grabbed a wicket each, and new overseas player and left-armer seamer Ray Toole was impressive on debut taking 2-24.
Then Henry Collier came in and ripped the guts out of his former side, picking up 4-41 with his offspin, making sure Wanganui couldn’t get going.
CD batsman Ben Smith top scored for Wanganui with 52 and GC Pretorius, scored 42.
Hawke’s Bay (68-1) pumped Wairarapa (64) by nine wickets, Taranaki (271-5) beat Marlborough (125) by 146 runs and Nelson (315-8) beat Horowhenua-kapiti (311-9) by two wickets.