Hectic start to cup season
Century scores and tumbling wickets in BOP Cup round
It’s likely that there has never been a more explosive start to the Bay of Plenty Cup than Saturday’s opening round — with two centuries and a six-wicket bag in one encounter and three heavyweight contenders tasting defeat.
Pa¯pa¯moa batted first in their match with Tauranga Boys’ College at Alice Johnson Oval. Xavier Lee (85) and Kade Smit combined in a 160-run partnership, with Smit going on to smack 111 runs off 103 balls. Pa¯pa¯moa declared at 302 for eight.
Tauranga Boys’ opener Sebastian Heath came to the wicket full of fight and proceeded to belt 125, including nine fours and six sixes to give his team a grand start to their big chase. Heath posted rare back to back centuries after striking 105 runs the previous week.
At 215/5, Tauranga Boys’ were still in the match, but a six-wicket haul from Pa¯pa¯moa bowler Allan Arora did the damage as Tauranga Boys’ College were restricted to 237 for nine.
Another six-wicket bag was collected at Pemberton Park, where Geyser City caused a big upset in beating defending titleholders Greerton. The visitors were bowled out for 193 with Cohen Stewart in top form with 65 runs.
Greerton bowler Andrew Friskney, fresh out of Tauranga Boys’ College, will long remember his Bay of Plenty Cup debut for the Yellow and Black brigade, taking six wickets at a cost of 53 runs.
Greerton looked to be in a strong position at 102/3, before the Rotorua side tightened the screws and removed the hosts 20 runs short of their target.
Lake Taupo seemed to have set eight times Bay of Plenty Cup champions Mount Maunganui an easy target when they were removed for 110. However, led by long-serving Taupo¯ player Roger Urbahn, who grabbed five wickets to have the Mount reply in tatters, the Mount were dismissed for 86.
The third big gun to pull up short was Cadets who lost to Te Puke in Te Puke.
The visitors posted 163 all out. Led by 83 not out from Pip Thickpenny, the home side cruised to a six-wicket win.
Lake Taupo¯ joined Mount Maunganui at the top of the Baywide T20 leaderboard after posting two victories in Sunday’s leg of the competition. First up they beat Tauranga
Boys’ College then got past Pa¯pa¯moa.
Central Indians also won two encounters in the busy weekend for the Baywide premier cricketers. The combined team dispatched Pa¯ pa¯ moa by seven wickets then got home against Tauranga Boys’ College with five wickets to spare.
Inclement weather intervened in the two Western Bay six round matches, with Cadets versus Greerton and Te Puke’s match with Geyser City, both abandoned midway..
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Bayleys Bay of Plenty Cup Round One
Generation Homes Taupo 110 (Archie Harrison 35, Peter Drysdale 4/32) defeated Bond & Co Mount Maunganui 86 (Gus Tustin 31; Roger Urbahn 5/23) Element IMF Cadets 163 (Tasman Carsons 4/29) lost to Flying Mullet Te Puke 165/4 (Pip Thickpenny 83no, Ben Vyver 48, Josh Earle 36) Craigs Investment Partners Geyser City 193 (Cohen Stewart 64, Joshua Robinson 39; Andrew Friskney 6/53, James Boyd 3/42) defeated Eves Realty Greerton 174 (Charles Williams 48, Anish Desai 32; Ben Astwood 5/55) Pa¯ pa¯ moa 302/8 dec (Kade Smit 111, Xavier Lea 85, Sam Wilson 41) defeated Craigs Investment Partners Tauranga Boys’ College 237/9 (Seb Heath 125, Reuben Swanepoel 52; Allan Arora 6/81, Matthew Rees 3/55) Sanford Wall Lawyers Central Indians the bye.
Venture Developments T20
Round Five
Craigs Investment Partners Tauranga Boys’ College 110/8 lost to Generation Homes Lake Taupo 111/2 17 (Nafis Shaikh 64no)
Pa¯ pa¯ moa 137/8 (Allan Arora 45no) lost to Sanford Wall Lawyers Central Indians 141/3 (Aaron Bennett 51, Lovely Sandhu 32)
Bond & Co Mount Maunganui 150/5 (Peter Drysdale 40, GS Samra 32) defeated Geyser City 116/7 (Sean Gapes 38; Peter Drysdale 3/20) Flying Mullet Te Puke 129/8 lost to Eves Realty Greerton 130/2
Element IMF Cadets the bye.
Round Six
Craigs Investment Partners Tauranga Boys’ College 108/6 (Seb Heath 50) lost to Sanford Wall Lawyers Central Indians 109/5
Pa¯ pa¯ moa 136/7 (Xavier Lea 30, Allan Arora 30, Habib Malik 3/30) lost to Generation Homes Lake Taupo 140/3 (Nafis Shaikh 73, Michael Mitchell 41no)
Element IMF Cadets 155/8 20 (Marcel Collett 41, Joel Griffiths 35, Josh Espitalier 4/23) Eves Realty Greerton 62/5 — game abandoned
Craigs Investment Partners Geyser City 180/7 (Alex Roy 60, Sean Gapes 42no) Flying Mullet Te Puke 33/1 — game abandoned
Bond & Co Mount Maunganui the bye. Points Table: Lake Taupo 27, Mount Maunganui 27, Greerton 24, Cadets 18, Central Indians 15, Pa¯pa¯moa 9, Tauranga Boys College 9, Te Puke 9, Geyser City 6.