Ravindra continues dream run withbat
‘‘Ravindra also took some key Karori wickets with his leftarm spin.’’
Young allrounder Rachin Ravindra’s flying start to the new cricket season continued with a century for Hutt District as they beat Karori in another Ben Burn Park runfest.
Thanks to Ravindra’s 106 off 96 balls, and a blazing 114 off 56 by veteran Deepak Joon, Hutt plundered 381-7 on the postage stamp Karori ground in round three of the Ewen Chatfield Trophy 50-over competition on Saturday.
That proved too much for a star-studded Karori who were bowled out for 335, as Hutt celebrated a 46-run victory on the artificial turf.
Ravindra, 18 this month, backed up his century in the Wellington qualifier for the national secondary schools finals a week earlier, having scored 118 for Hutt International Boys’ School in their 158-run win over Wellington College.
He added 139 for the second wicket with Troy Johnson (70 off 84) before former Firebird Joon strode out at No 5 and blasted eight sixes before he was dismissed in the final over.
A one-time New Zealand Under-19 captain at age 16, at the 2016 world tournament in Bangladesh, Ravindra also took some key Karori wickets with his left-arm spin, removing Peter Younghusband for 54 and Sam Noster for 19 in a nine-over spell of 2-63.
Fresh from a Plunket Shield century, Stephen Murdoch hit 82 off 50 and Jono Sole topscored with 84 off 51 in Karori’s chase but wickets kept tumbling as opening bowler Ben Skilton finished with bizarre figures of 5-80 off 8.3 overs.
Onslow lead after their third successive bonus point win, by 116 runs over Collegians at Adventure Park. A 135-run opening stand between Sean O’Connor (58) and Andrew Fletcher (93) helped Onslow to 262-9, with Shreyas Debur picking up 4-53 late in the innings. Dan Rose continued his strong form with the ball for Onslow, picking up 3-42.
Second-placed Easts also had a big win, by 125 runs over Taita at Kilbirnie Park. Aided by an injury to Taita captain Mark Houghton, who departed in the 10th over and didn’t return, the hosts put on 309-9 thanks to 107 from Ben Orton and halfcenturies from Fraser Colson (61) and James Price (66).
Without Houghton, Taita were dismissed for 184 with Sri Krishnamurthy’s 50 the topscore. Ricky Joseph took 3-34 while Jamie Gibson took 2-37 including the prized scalp of Firebirds allrounder Logan van Beek.
Johnsonville skittled University for just 108 on the way to a nine-wicket victory at Ngatitoa Domain. Swing bowler Zac Ringrose led the way with 4-21 and returning Firebirds spinner Luke Woodcock chipped in with 3-6 off five, before Rakitha Weerasundara (53 not out) ensured a comfortable bonus point victory.
At Sladden Park, Upper Hutt clung on by 14 runs over PetoneEastbourne after scoring 239-9. Tyler Simpson and Bhavik Patel both picked up three wickets for Upper Hutt as they dismissed Petone for 225.
North City had their first win of the season over bottom-placed Naenae Old Boys, after skittling them for 204. They made hard work of the chase before securing a four-wicket win, thanks to Chris Parr’s innings of 58. For Naenae, Ciaran Hargreaves picked up 4-43.
AT A GLANCE Ewen Chatfield Trophy results:
Onslow 262-9 beat Collegians 146, Eastern Suburbs 309-9 beat Taita 184-9, University 108 lost to Johnsonville 112-1, Hutt District 381-7 beat Karori 335, Upper Hutt 239-9 beat Petone-Eastbourne 225, Naenae 204 lost to North City 206-6.
Points after three rounds:
Onslow 15, Easts 14, Karori 10, Johnsonville 10, Hutt District 8, University 5, Collegians 5, North City 5, Petone-Eastbourne 4, Upper Hutt 4, Taita 4, Naenae 0.