Pukekohe Metro’s bumper weekend
Counties Manukau senior men’s teams have made a clean sweep of the red-ball trophies in 2017/18.
During one weekend Pukekohe’s ordinary season has gone from boiled lollies to chocolate e´clairs. On Saturday they beat Manukau in a high scoring match at Bledisloe Park mooring themselves a place in this weekend’s Duthie Cup Final.
Then hosted Cambridge in the Northern Districts Club Final. A 65-run win gained them the Eric Petrie Cup and a shot in rarefied air. In the second week of April they will be the NDCA representative in the six-team National Club Championship at Cornwall Park. Duthie Cup The two Saturday fixtures were about finding an opponent for Karaka in next week’s grand finale. Pukekohe won that scrap and will defend their crown at the Karaka Sports Park on Saturday. Pukekohe Metro v Manukau Ash Herwels is fond of Bledisloe Park and it’s a recurring affair. The Manukau opening batsman fired up again on Saturday and his heat map was bright red in the point-cover region.
With Sandeep Patel (47) acting as his personal assistant Herwels reached 96 at which point Corey Hunter deceived him with a slower ball and had him caught at point. Herwels’ cache spurred Manukau to a total of 258/7.
Hunter (4/74), had a mixed game with the ball. The over that brought about the downfall of Herwels went 6-6-6-wkt-wkt-1.
Pukekohe’s retort was assembled around Katene Clarke (89) and Ben Reece (60).
Clarke wrote the book on attacking batting. He took his guard outside of the crease and stepped down the wicket to every bowler. He too was eventually quietened by a slower ball, this time from Sandeep Patel (1/58).
Manukau 258/7 (Ash Herwels 96, Sandeep Patel 47, Jarrod Halliday 44 no, Corey Hunter 4/74) lost to PukekoheMetro 261/7 (Katene Clarke 89, Ben Reece 60, Barry Rhodes 29, Cullen Halliday 3/52, Tristan Payle 2/35) by three wickets. Papakura v Waiuku With Pukekohe Metro working the oracle down the road Papakura’s bonus point roasting of Waiuku lost its value.
Waiuku 46 (Shaun Lovett 14, Tarun Singh 4/15, Ryan Phizackerley 3/26) lost to Papakura 48/0 (Richie Faust 31 no, Ryan Phizackerley 17 no) by 10 wickets.
Pukekohe Metro v Cambridge, Bledisloe Park
The team was back in its natural habitat for part two of the St Patrick’s weekend double-header. This time Pukekohe batted first, and they did not do it very well. They only lasted 37.2 overs and 186 was the sum of their work. When they defended their total a couple of brilliant long-distance run outs and some good bowling saved their bacon.
There were some fine individual performances by Pukekohe players over the two days, but over the course of the weekend Ash Vodnala’s 5/15 in yesterday’s final was the most significant.
Pukekohe-Metro 186(Jono Keen 65, Katene Clarke 27, Ash Vodnala 20, Chris Swanson 4/22) beat Cambridge 121(Chris Swanson 33, Ash Vodnala 5/15) by 65 runs.