Marist, United up for another final
Marist and United will do battle in their second Manawatu¯ club final of the season, this time in the twenty20 competition.
The two sides who fought out the two-day final last month will also feature in the twenty20 final at Manawaroa Park, Palmerston North, this weekend. There is one more round of the round-robin remaining, but United and Marist can’t be caught by the other four teams.
Marist and United, who have both won four games from four, were drawn to play each other in the last round, so they will probably forgo that game and play just the final.
The first round of games on Saturday were shifted to artificial pitches and shortened to 10 overs a side because grounds were wet due to overnight rain.
United beat Old Boys by five wickets in their first game, restricting Old Boys to 92-3 from their 10 overs, where Henry Boon top scored with 36.
United reached 95-5 with two balls to spare as captain Logan Mchardy scored 35 not out. Old Boys spinner Trent Mcgrath did his best, with 2-8 from two overs.
In United’s second game they beat
Freyberg by six wickets, chasing down Freyberg’s 165-8 in 10.3 overs, as Hayden Hill scored 55 and Tom O’connor made 31. United scored 166-4.
Earlier, Thomas Walshe scored 59 and Scott Mitchell 34 for Freyberg. United bowler Nathan Hill took 3-39.
In Marist’s first game, they had a tight four-wicket win over Freyberg, who scored 83-3 batting first thanks to 42 from opener Luke Murray.
Marist had contributions from the top three of Whetu na Nagara (17), Arana Noema-barnett (14) and Dylan Gaskin (16), then Dave Meiring saw them home with 19 not out, guiding Marist to 86-4 in 9.3 overs.
Marist’s second win of the day was a four-wicket victory over
Palmerston North Boys’ High School.
The schoolboys posted 98-8 batting first. Regan Fleming’s 19 at No 5 was their top score. Six Marist bowlers took a wicket each and there were two run outs.
Marist then made their way to 102-6 in 18.5 overs, where Whetu na Nagara’s 23 and Floyd na Nagara’s 21 were the best efforts with the bat.
Spinner Hugo Wakeling took 2-11 for Boys’ High.
Palmerston were beaten by Boys’ High by seven wickets in their 10-over duel.
Opener Ashan Kulalhilake scored 39 as Palmerston posted 76-2 batting first.
Boys’ High then scored 79-3 with 1.1 overs to spare as No 3 Logan Love made 26 and Scott Davidson scored 20 not out at No 5. Palmerston then lost to Old Boys by six wickets, with Old Boys scoring 132-4 in the second innings, chasing Palmerston’s 131-6.
Gurpreet Singh top scored for Palmerston with 32 and Kulalhilake was next with 27. Brynn Cleaver and Boon took two wickets apiece for Old Boys.
Robbie Yule hit an unbeaten 52 to get Old Boys home in 17.2 overs. Singh chimed in with 3-30.