Principal’s cricket masterclass
Former Southland Hawke Cup captain clubs unbeaten 104 in week one of T20 Super League, writes Logan Savory.
Geoff Folster turned back the clock on Friday night.
The former Southland Hawke Cup cricket captain’s innings proved the highlight of round one of the Southland T20 Super League.
Folster plays for the Southland Barbarians, a team consisting of retired club and representative players who return briefly each season to take part in the twenty20 format.
The Barbarians play in the Invercargill pool, one of three in the competition, and the first in action.
Folster opened the batting in the Barbarians’ first fixture, against Appleby at Appleby, and posted an unbeaten 104 from 68 balls.
The primary school principal showed he hadn’t lost the touch which made him such a key figure in the Southland Hawke
Cup team for so many years.
He clubbed 10 fours and six sixes to bring up his century in the final over of the Barbarians’ innings.
It was Folster’s 21st senior club hundred, another achievement in an impressive career.
His 104 pushed the Barbarians through to 153 for three from their 20 overs.
Appleby were bowled out for 106 in the 17th over, falling 48 runs short.
Blake Harper was another star performer in week one of the T20 competition on Friday night, taking five for 18 for Marist to help bowl Invercargill-Old Boys out for just 67.
Marist overhauled the target with the loss of just one wicket, and 8.3 overs to spare.
In the third twenty20 fixture, Southland Boys’ High School banked a convincing nine-wicket win over the Metro Tigers.
Metro posted 123 batting first, which included a rapid-fire 41 from 19 balls from Jason Osborne, but it was far from enough.
SBHS overhauled the target with the loss of just one wicket and 19 balls to spare with Brayden Thomas (69 not out) and Benji Culhane (30 not out) leading the way.
Less than 24 hours after Folster delivered his century, Amarpreet Singh delivered another batting masterclass, playing for Invercargill-Old Boys in the 50-over-a-side format on Saturday.
Singh notched up 109 from 86 balls to push Invercargill-Old Boys through to what looked like a more than competitive 247 for eight against Appleby.
However, Appleby had something special in store themselves, as they pulled off a memorable victory for the club.
Appleby were at one stage 68 for three from 22 overs before Ankit Pursharthy (72 not out) and Jamie Clark (76 not out) got their team out of a hole and on the way to victory.
Spinner Jason Milne again provided vital for Marist as they banked a victory over SBHS in their 50-over-a-side clash on Saturday.
Marist restricted SBHS to 158 batting first with Milne producing the figures of 10-3-21-3.
James Ng also took three wickets at the top for Marist.
Jed Mockford was the key contributor with the bat for SBHS with his 45 from 70 balls.
Marist were on shaky ground at 68 for five before Andy Sinclair racked up an unbeaten 66 from 45 balls to get Marist home at 160 for seven.
In the third 50-over fixture on Saturday, Waikoikoi’s 189 for eight batting first was enough to get them home against Metro.
Blair McKenzie’s 80 opening the innings set up Waikoikoi, while Daniel George picked up three wickets with the ball for Metro.
Metro struggled throughout during the chase and were eventually bowed out for 128.