Taking a seven-wicket win at home
Morrinsville crushed St Paul’s Collegiate School at home in the latest round of the Waikato Valley club cricket’s Champions Trophy competition.
At the Morrinsville Recreation ground, the home side won by seven wickets, having restricted the visitors to 174-8, which featured a dogged 39 off 102 from opener Jamie Sandford.
It was never near enough, as in reply the home side had contributions from all the top four, with Brendan Revell (59no off 55 [four fours and three sixes]) seeing them home in just 30.5 overs.
At St Peter’s School, the winless home side had contributions from Campbell Child (49) and Tom Montgomerie (35), while also benefiting from 31 extras. However the other nine batsmen could only muster a miserable 26 between them, as Jayden Park returned the pick of the figures, with 4-28 off eight.
In their chase, Hinuera dropped to 59-4, but Scott Mitchell (41) and Dean Scholtz’s (28) 62-run stand for the fifth wicket was crucial, as was the 29 extras from the nine St Peter’s bowlers.
Baxter Kane (3-9 off 6.1) struck twice in three balls with the score at 139, but it was too little too late, as Hinuera got home by two wickets in 36.1 overs.
Overall, it is Cambridge which has within touching distance of a spot in the final of Champions Trophy competition, with a commanding win over Otorohanga on Saturday pushing them well clear at the top of the ladder.
Their 130-run dispatching of the visitors to Victoria Square saw Cambridge secure a bonus point in the fixture which was originally slated to be a two-day match, but was reduced to a oneday contest after play was washed out last weekend.
With second-placed Te Awamutu being knocked over by R & A Sangha XI, it means Cambridge now have a healthy 10-point advantage atop the standings, with one one-day match and one two-day match to play. A win over Morrinsville in this weekend’s one-dayer would see Cambridge assured of their place in the decider, on March 25-26.
Their latest effort produced a good all-round effort with the willow to post 264-8 from their 50 overs.
The hosts were led by half centuries from Chris Swanson - who hit eight fours in his 62 off 78 balls at No 4 - and Dillon Kelliher - who hit 10 fours in his 58 off 93 at the top of the order, while Otorohanga were guilty of coughing up 32 extras.
In reply the visitors set off in decent fashion, at near seven an over, before losing two wickets with the score at 40.
Opener Andrew McLean (43 off 42) kept scoring freely, but offspinner Patrick Tomsett struck twice in his second over, then soon later McLean was the fifth man out, with Otorohanga slumping from 83-2 to 107-5.
The visitors managed to add 26 runs, but they lost their last five wickets for just one run, in 10 balls. Their innings in the end featured five ducks and a zero not out.
Tomsett ripped out three wickets in one over to end with 5-32 off eight, before fellow offspinner Saif Khan (3-39 off 9.4) finished off the job, with Otorohanga bundled out for 134 in just 28.4 overs.