Morrison snuffs out Collegiate’s hopes
With the dangerous Shaun
O’Leary at the crease, a Collegiate victory was still a
possibility. However, Hunter Morrison, in his debut match for
United after leaving school, had
other ideas.
On Saturday the Coastal Challenge competition continued with Whanganui Collegiate playing Property Brokers United on the Tasman Tanning Victoria Park No 1 pitch.
The United side batted first and had few difficulties early. Aggressive cameos from Joel Clark and Gerard Hobbs, combined with Andrew Penn, saw the side comfortably push through to 138/2 in the 26th over and a total around the 300 beckoned.
However, they lost skipper Simon Badger for 28 and then suffered a few mid-innings wobbles, which saw the side reach 206/7 at the end of the 38th over.
But Chris Sharrock intelligently with the (37) played tail enders;
Stephen Holloway, Hunter Morrison and John Beale, and a final total of 278/9 was reached.
Penn was the anchor of the innings scoring an impressive 94 from 100 deliveries.
Using his experience the former Black Cap took his time to build his innings before changing gears with an aggressive display later in his innings.
He hit 10 fours and three sixes, including two effortless cover drives which easily cleared the long Victoria Park boundaries.
The best of the Collegiate bowlers was Oscar Mabin, who recovered from an expensive start to finish with 2-56. Adam Beard took 3-61 and Shaun O’Leary took 2-38 from 10 economical overs.
O’Leary showed real commitment to his school by returning just hours before the game from the gruelling Condor Sevens rugby tournament and still competing at the highest level. In reply, Collegiate lost Henry Strang early but settled down to reach 124/4 in the 29th over.
With the dangerous O’Leary at the crease a Collegiate victory was still a possibility.
However, Morrison, in his debut match for United after leaving school, had other ideas.
He produced an aggressive spell that tore the Collegiate innings apart. Morrison finished with the impressive figures of 7 for 28 off 9.3 overs. All his wickets were either clean bowled (4), caught behind the wicket (2) or lbw.
Tom Lance and John Beale’s economical bowling assisted to put pressure on the young Collegiate side.
The best Collegiate batsmen were Daniel Burgess with 42 off 60 balls and O’Leary with a patient 35 off 63 as he tried to hold the innings together.
Collegiate were all out for 157 in the 37th over.
The young Collegiate side will be better for the experience as a number of their younger players have ability and will take their lessons into next term’s interschool sides.