ROUGH START
Boys’ High falls short on day one
The Palmerston North Boys’ High School first XI had a rough start to the national secondary schools boys cricket finals on home turf.
Boys’ High were beaten by two wickets by Tauranga Boys’ College at Manawaroa Park yesterday, the opening day of the week-long tournament.
Batting first, Boys’ High were bowled out for a below-par 125, but did a great job of almost defending the total, as Tauranga only reached 126-8 in 48.4 overs.
Boys’ High had opener Tom Tremaine to thank for giving their bowlers something to defend. Tremaine scored a patient 58 not out from 125 balls, hitting six fours and a six.
The problem was that none of his partners stayed in long enough to build big partnerships and Boys’ High were eventually all out in the 44th over.
The only other batsman in double figures was No 6 Ruben Love, who scored 25, and added 63 runs with Tremaine for the fifth wicket. The next best score was extras with 14.
Craig Baldry took 3-19 for Tauranga.
In their defence, most of the Boys’ High bowlers were tight, but just didn’t have enough runs to defend.
Tauranga opener Marcel Collett scored 25 and Imanpreet Singh scored a crucial 30 late in the innings to see them home.
Opening bowler Jack Harris took 2-28 and medium pacers Bryn Wilson and Rishabh De took 2-32 and 2-21 respectively.
Boys’ High’s two spinners Finn Martin and Ben O’connor were both tight, taking 1-20 and 1-14 from their 10 respective overs.
In the other games at Fitzherbert Park, Otago Boys’ High School (154) lost to Christchurch Boys’ High School (155-3) by seven wickets and Hutt International Boys’ School (220-9) lost to Rosmini College (221-6) by four wickets.
Boys’ High will play HIBS on Tuesday, Rosmini will play Christchurch and Otago will play Tauranga.