Greerton have one hand on Bay of Plenty Cup

Eves Realty Greerton put one hand on the Bay of Plentycupwhenthey wona battle of attrition againstbond & Comount Maunganui in the penultimate round.

Greertonwonthe toss and batted first on their home pitch at Pemberton Park, on Saturday.

Themountbowlers put plenty of pressure on thegreerton top order and, with 99 runs on the board for the loss of five wickets, the hosts were in some trouble.

Batting at seven, Umesh Ranaraja dug deep into his batting arsenal to hit his side’s top score of 59, with Brandon Laurenzi contributing 34 runs, as the home side were bowled out for 202.

Mountveteran Peter Drysdale pulled somemore rabbits out of his hat of experience, grabbing five wickets at a cost of 28 runs.

Ben Musgrave anchored the Mountmaunganui reply, with ahardfought 44 runs. Three othermount batsmen got promising starts, reaching the 20s without going on, as the Greerton bowlers started to take control.

Afive-wicket bag fromjames Boyd did plenty of damage asmount Maunganui were removed 22 runs short of their target.

Withmountmaunganui sitting out the last round bye, the only theoretical challenger to stop Greerton winning the 2020 Bay of Plentycup title is Flying Mullette Puke, whowould have to comprehensively defeat Pa¯pa¯moa to pickup bonus points and thenhope the Holland Beckettlawtauranga Boys’ Collegeupset Greerton.

Te Puke claimed their fourth straight winwhen they held off the challenge of Elementimf Cadets.

Twote Puke lower-order batsmen in Josh Earle (41) and Iman Singh (39) played prominent roles in thete Puke total of 173 for nine wickets. Fergus Lellman and Mayura Galappaththi took three wickets apiece in the Cadets bowling attack.

The encounter at thete Puke Domainwasup for grabs throughout most of the Cadets’ reply, before the visitors were removed for 163, to give the home side anarrow 10-run winningmargin.

Lellmanwas a rock at one end and top scored for his side with 74 off

132 balls.

Aneat century frombayleys Central Indians captain Stephen Nicholls led his side to amatchwinning 242 for the loss of seven wickets against Generationhomes Laketaupo¯.

Daniel Fordwas also in good touch with the bat for his 69 runs, with Roger Urbahn taking four wickets.

The Central Indians’ total proved a bridge too far for the Laketaupo¯ team, as they were dismissed 74 runs short of their target.

Jack Wiggins provided the best of thetaupo¯ team’s batting with 68 runs, while the Rotorua’s sides wickets were shared around.

Tauranga Boys’ College had little trouble dispatching Craigs Investment Partners Geyser at Nicholson Field in thewestern Bay of Plenty.

Twocheap wickets apiece, from Timpringle, Charles Williams, Tim Clarke anddarcy Collett had Geyser back in their dressing roomwith just 105 runs onthe scoreboard.

Tauranga Boys’ then cruised to an eight-wicket win, Timpringle leading theway with an unbeaten 47 runs.

Central lightupreserve grade

Specialmentionmust bemade of the Central Cricket Club reserve teamthisweek after they produced whatwill surely be the biggest win of the season.

Batting first againsttaupo¯’scossie College Old Boys Bin the 40-over match, Central produced an incredible 407/2 on the back of 250 not out fromopener Nathan Hall, whobatted the full 40overs.

In reply, Cobbwere skittled for just 42 runs.