Marist secure two-day title
A long title drought has now been replaced by a monsoon for Marist.
Marist beat United on the first innings in the rain-affected twoday final at Manawaroa Park, Palmerston North, at the weekend. It is Marist’s third two-day title in a row and they have also won the past two one-day competitions.
Before those wins, Marist hadn’t won the one-day competition for 15 years and the two-dayers for seven years.
Marist captain Dave Meiring said having a relatively unchanged team for the past couple of years helped their consistent results and much of the current team weren’t involved in their winless run.
United scored 95 batting first on Saturday, then Marist edged past them to reach 114, before United were 48-3 at stumps. The second day of the game on Sunday was washed out.
‘‘Even though we won the game, it would have been nice to play both days,’’ Meiring said. ‘‘The way the game was poised, both teams were well and truly in the hunt. While we’re happy to get the result we probably knew the rain was due [on Sunday].’’
The ball was swinging in the humid conditions on Saturday, much to the delight of pace bowler Navin Patel, who took 5-25 from 11 overs.
Seamer Connor Morriss also starred with 3-24 as they knocked United over in 33.4 overs.
United captain Logan Mchardy put the result down to poor batting.
‘‘We put [the ball] in good areas. We did a good job, but didn’t have the runs on the board.’’
He said they tried to set it up for an outright result on the last day, but the weather got in the way.
Mchardy and Hayden Hill led a mini revival in United’s first innings, with a partnership of 36, but Hill was out for 15 and Mchardy was later dismissed for 29.
Then United had a good crack at knocking Marist over. Marist slumped to 27-5, with United seamers Phil Mecredy and Cam Harris taking four wickets each.
But Meiring steadied things for Marist, with 23 at No 7, and he added 36 runs with Hugh Symes, who made 16.
United had a sniff with Marist at 84-8, but Marist’s Liam Gunning scored 19 and Morriss, usually a top-order batsman, came in at No 10 and scored 17 to eke out a first innings lead of 19 runs after 42.1 overs.
‘‘It was tense,’’ Mchardy said. ‘‘It was all up in the air for a minute.
‘‘We probably should have hammered it home when we had them 27-5, but that’s cricket.’’
United then reached 48-3 in 18 overs before stumps on Saturday for a lead of 29.
Opener Tom O’connor scored 29 and Jack Gleeson took two wickets.
The season-ending twenty20 competition starts this weekend. There is a round-robin during the next three weeks and the final is on March 16.