Champions Trophy competition starts
Morrinsville cricket team was away to Hinuera on Saturday, hosted in Matamata in the first round of the Champions Trophy of the Waikato Valley Premier cricket competition.
Hinuera captain Mitch Green won the toss and had no hesitation to bat first under perfect conditions at Pohlen Park.
Opening the batting Ryan Wilson was the second wicket to fall after contributing a steady 49 off 50 balls.
Having been a late call up to the team, Brad McKenzie batting at No.5, scored a solid 45 in a 72 minute stay at the crease.
A late rally in the last four overs saw Jason Rusk score 26 not out, including two huge sixes, which pushed the final score up to a respectable 233 for 9 wickets off the mandatory 50 overs.
Morrinsville batted steadily and at 80 for 2 wickets in the 24th over, Hinuera introduced spin into the attack at both ends and soon wickets started to fall.
At 131 for 7 with leg spinner Ian Marshall having snared 3 wickets and left arm orthodox spinner Ben Blackett getting 2 wickets the match looked to be heading for a positive result for Hinuera.
However a bottom order revival saw Morrinsville score 61 runs for the last three wickets finally being dismissed in the 46th over for 192.
Ben Blackett took the last three wickets to fall and finished with 5 for 40 off 9.4 overs and with two catches in field he had a hand in seven of the ten dismissals for a man of the match performance.
Hinuera
Match Summary:
233/9, R.Wilson 49, B.McKenzie 45, J.Rusk 26no, D.Scholtz 25, defeated Morrinsville 192, B.Blackett 5/40, I Marshall 3/60 by 41 runs. On Saturday, Morrinsville is away to Kihikihi to take on Te Awamutu while Hinuera travel away to play Cambridge.
‘‘So now we start the two-day comp for the Champions Trophy. We have two new teams this year, Paeroa and a team from St Peter’s Cambridge has also come up. And then later on we have got our rep team which will play their first game in February against Northland.’’
Coles said he was happy with the new-look Hamilton cityWaikato Valley combined cricket competition, which concluded at the end of 2016.
‘‘We’ve had some fantastic feedback from Hamilton city teams as well as Waikato Valley teams, it’s been a success.
‘‘It was great that Cambridge won that competition, a great result and very well deserved, they were the best team in the competition and it showed in the round-robin play. They were right up there to beat Hamilton Boys’ High School.’’
Coles said both Waikato Valley and Hamilton city cricket associations would review the combined competition over winter, with a view to returning to it at the start of the 2017/18 season.
‘‘I would like to think it would return next season. Whether we expand it or not is another question.
‘‘We had the T-20 planned for this year but it was washed out because of the rain. Certainly we will be planning to talk to Hamilton about the possibility.’’