Reinforcements for Hawke Cup campaign
Kieran Lloyd and Matt McCall are in line to make their Hawke Cup debuts when the Southland cricket team open their campaign against Otago Country at Queens Park in Invercargill on Sunday.
Lloyd has been a long-serving Southland club cricketer over the years with both the Albion club in Gore and now Appleby in Invercargill.
The all-rounder comes into the fold following the retirement of Jason Domigan after last year’s campaign when Southland successfully defended the Hawke Cup against Mid Canterbury and then lost it to Nelson.
McCall is set to open the batting for Southland with coach Steve Jackson having to fill the batting gaps left by Harsh Visavidaya and Venkat Kotte who are playing their cricket in Dunedin this season.
McCall, a doctor, moved south for a job opportunity and joined Marist before working his way into the Hawke Cup setup.
Former Otago Volts batsman Ryan Duffy is also likely to come into the fold later in the campaign once he has completed the Coast to Coast on February 8.
Southland’s 2020 bowling stocks have also been bolstered this season with former players Bailey Andrews-Kennedy and Kurt Thompson returning.
Andrews-Kennedy played for Otago Country while living in Queenstown in recent seasons.
He has been playing club cricket in Dunedin this season but decided to make himself available for his home province Southland, much to the delight of Jackson.
‘‘He has been in that Otago A framework and he’s a fierce competitor. He’s a great athlete and gives us that little bit more zip. He’s great in the field and really energetic,’’ Jackson said.
Traditionally Southland have played games pre-Christmas but it is a late start to this season’s campaign. It means Southland will play their four southern zone two-day Hawke Cup fixtures inside five weeks.
Although the late start should have provided the Southland team with a long build-up, Jackson said the reality was that many of the players had not played a lot of cricket due to the horror run of weather before the Christmas break.
Jackson did like the fact that there would be tough back-toback games to build on rather than a stop-start representative season.
Southland’s club players did get two days of cricket in during the weekend.
It started with round seven 50-over-a-side fixtures on Saturday where Southland Hawke Cup wicketkeeper batsman Amarpreet Singh provided the individual highlight, despite his Invercargill-Old Boys team losing.
Singh struck 15 fours and two sixes in his knock of 104 which came off just 77 balls.
It pushed Invercargill-Old Boys to 257 for six batting first before Waikoikoi impressed in chasing it down.
Ryan McFaul’s 67 from 59 balls was the backbone to the chase while Kurt Thompson (26 not out) and Finn Hurley (23 not out) saw their team home with a 38-run eighth-wicket partnership.
Waikoikoi overhauled the target with three wickets and four balls to spare.
In the other games on Saturday, Appleby banked a comfortable nine-wicket win over Southland Boys’ High School and Marist beat the Metro Tigers by 84 runs.
On Sunday there was even more success for Waikoikoi when they claimed Southland’s twenty20 Super League title.
Early in the day, Waikoikoi progressed to the final after beating the Southland Barbarians in one semifinal. In the final they met Marist, who toppled Central-Western in the other semi.
Marist posted a competitive 140 batting first in the decider but it was no match for the boys from Waikoikoi.
Rhuebyn Prattley was at his destructive best in his knock of 58 while Todd Thayer finished 67 not out as Waikoikoi won by eight wickets.