Woodleigh control opening day of club final
When Inglewood took to the crease to open the Taranaki premier twoday cricket final against Woodleigh, they couldn’t have seen the inconsistencies in their scoreboard coming.
But at the end of their first innings at Pukekura Park on Friday, the inconsistencies stuck out. While four of their batsmen managed to post decent scores, they were the only four to reach double figures.
Aaron Taylor (48) provided a strong platform at the top of the order, Hayden McIntyre (56) and Jason Dombroski (21) handled themselves in the middle of the order, and Jamie Farquhar (46) worked away at the bottom of the order.
When Dombroski departed, Inglewood looked on shaky ground a 76-4. However with their four key scorers collectively posting 171 runs, Inglewood went on to score 201. Woodleigh’s Andrew Mason
led the charge with ball in hand and caused trouble for the Inglewood batsmen all day, finishing with figures of 5-64, capably helped by Simon Bird who had 3-43.
Woodleigh didn’t have the same issues at the top of the order and their opening duo of Peter Ingram and Shaun Sullivan got their side off to a fast start, with Ingram bringing up his 50 inside the opening 15 overs.
Ingram (72) and Sullivan(27) led the side to 101 without loss before
play ended for the day due to bad light, trailing Inglewood by just 100 runs with all 10 wickets in hand.
While it is a two-day competition, three days are allowed for the final, with play set to continue on Saturday and Sunday.
However, Inglewood require at least a first-innings result to claim the title. Should the weather play a part and keep the players off the pitch for the next two days, or Woodleigh take the first-innings points, Woodleigh will take the title as the top qualifying finalist.