All six teams remain in contention for Premier League title

INVERCARGILL

WITH three rounds of Southland club cricket remaining, all six clubs are still in contention for the finals of the 50over Premier League.

Marist had an important 72run win at Appleby on Saturday. Marist batted first and made 215 runs before being bowled out in the final over. Shaun Fitzgibbon dominated the innings with 106 runs from 126 balls. Fitzgibbon was at the crease in the third over and was dismissed in the 48th over. Jeremy Boyle provided significant support through the middle stages with 30 runs from 70 balls. Sam Downing and Sam Deuchrass took four wickets each for Appleby.

Four of the Appleby batsmen made starts but wickets fell at regular intervals, before the final wicket in the 44th over.

Waikoikoi had a narrow win on its home patch against Southland Boys’ High School. Waikoikoi was bowled out for 201 in the 49th over. Southland representatives Jared McKenzie (61) and Hamish Cooke (53) were the top contributors.

Bruno Burgess took four wickets for Boys’ High. The school’s runchase was then kept on track by Aaron Hart (45) and Hamish Skelt (51). Jake KuraWharepouri (26*) and Hunter Cairns (14*) finished the innings strongly but were nine runs short after 50 overs.

Invercargill Old Boys beat Metropolitan by 47 runs at Queens Park.

Old Boys’ opening batsman Satwinder Singh (54) hit nine boundaries when setting up the win. Liam McWilliam (32), Sam Nicholson (27), Blair McKenzie (32) and Ryan Acland (31) also contributed to the Old Boys total of 239 for seven from their 50 overs.

In reply, Metro got through to 192 thanks to its lowerorder batsmen Daniel Mills (30), Sam Stephens (28) and Zak Kelly. Kelly was unbeaten on 37 when the 10th wicket fell after 43 overs.

Central Western had a 43 run win against Appleby B, in Winton, in the division one competition. Central made 150 thanks to Grant Kean (42) and Nic Kincaid (42) and with the ball Connor Wells took four wickets for Central for just 14 runs.