Interbase Cricket
Auckland hosted Interbase (IB) cricket from 28 to 31 Jan in glorious sunshine.
In keeping with such a rarity, WN rolled back the years with Greg Rawson, 64, and Kerry Cousins, 21, sharing a 92 3rd wicket partnership. This was built on by John Eyles, 48, Merv Parr, 27, with a 86 5th wicket partnership, and finished off by Glen Pleasants, 21* to ensure a competitive 234. Mike Allen 4/53 was the best bowler. Solid opening & 2nd wicket partnership, 104, Deane Wilson, 38, & Tom Redward, 20, had OH 141/2 & cruising. Gidean Robati, 3/48, & Cousins, 3/33 offered WN a lifeline, but a superb 135 by Daniel Swanson, who opened, ensured a 2 wicket win.
AK batting first, lost a couple of early wickets but Mark Chadwick, 90, had them on track for a good score, which became an imposing 317/8 after huge hitting by Glenn Blay, 50* off 25 balls. Chris Turkington & Wade De Garnham took 3 wickets each. Grant 35* provided the only resistance in a total of 63, with Mike Jeffcoat & Chadwick each taking 4 wickets.
Day 2 saw WB, led by a masterful 70 by Grant on track for a very good total until Jason Trenberth, 4/7 limited them to 177. Cousins, 72, with support by Eyles, 28, & Parr, 26*, ensured an exciting 3 wicket win with 3 balls left.
AK made a solid 208 which again featured a whirlwind innings by Blay, 48 off 27 balls, & Chadwick 27, Nathan McKenzie 32. The bowling feature was Matt Janor 7/52. Effective bowling by all, with Jeffcoat 3/42, limited OH to 139 – Deane Wilson 32 & Allen 24.
Day 3 had WN’s relative batting form continue scoring 159. Jason Trenberth, opening the batting against the hostile Mark Whiteside, had the quote of the tournament – when asked by the new batsmen what the bowler was doing, instead of the normal moving it away etc “I don’t know but he’s killing me” proved premature as he made 40. Rawson 32 & Cousins, 22, were the only other batters to feature, with Jeffcoat, 4, & Chadwick, 3, again in the wickets. Bevins, 65*, & Nathan Tucker, 50*, ensured a comprehensive AK 9 wicket win.
Led by Grant’s 52, WB only batted 36 over’s making a total of 142. OH started their innings at bat hesitantly, due to fast bowling by Turkington having OH in early trouble. Grant applied pressure throughout his 10 over’s taking 3-16. As the match was balanced WB luckily managed to hold its catches and take all the chances on offer until the last-wicket partnership took them from 85 to 130 all out, falling 12 runs short of victory.
Therefore, with one win each, the calculator was out to determine the net run-rate for which team to join AK in the final. WB piped OH – another 7 runs by them would have reversed the position.
Despite Turkington striking early, super batting by Arron Collier and Chadwick took the game away scoring 103 & 97, AK totalling 323. WB in reply could not score the runs need but for the first time in the tourney batted their 50 overs, withstanding the Auckland want for a short time spent in the field to finish the match. John Cameron 44 and another Grant batting master class, 102*, led to 223/8, so leaving AK deserved winners of the Wilson Cup (IB winners).
In the early Twenty20 game OH beat WN, which was repeated in the plate game.
IB Cricket for the Women was a shortened format this year; albeit not through lack of interest, but due to work unavailability from WB and OH a ‘combined’ WB/OH team aptly named ‘WOKEA’ played AK. The shortened format consisted of two Twenty20 games on the Wed with a deciding 40 over game on the final day. With the WB women arriving late on the Wed morning it was a quick meet and greet then straight onto the field into the midday sun and unforgettable AK humidity for the first Twenty20 match. AK set out like they meant business with their many hours of practice pre-interbase formulating into a sizzling 152/3. Rochelle Blucher (Admin) retired on 53 and Tracey Lauchlan scored a quick 37*. The only wicket takers were Ange Hockenhull (Admin) 1-28 and Rowena Campbell 1-37. WOKEA dismally replied with 63 all out after some superb bowling by Shoni Knowles (Admin) who took a hat trick and ended on 3-9 off 3 overs. Admin were winners on the day.
The second match on the Wed afternoon was a much closer affair with the AK top order resting to allow the rest of the team some time out in the centre. WOKEA worked hard in the field despite their first loss and restricted AK to under 100 this time with JB Rodgers scoring 23 and Knowles contributing 21 to the AK score of 91/5. WOKEA were proud of their bowling; Flea Walding 1-5 off 4 and Campbell 3-20 off 4 and were looking quietly confident with an attainable target ahead of them. WOKEA opened the batting strongly with Hockenhull, 34, and Flea Walding, 19, until a middle order collapse and some tight bowling from AK turned the game into a nail-biter. The men, whose games had finished, lined the boundary in support of their respective teams and could be heard across the park with their chants. WOKEA required 8 runs off the last over to win, however, a run out prevailed leaving WOKEA all out for 86. Blucher ended her bowling with a respectable 2 - 7 off 4 and Maria Captein collected 3 – 20 off 4. A close game is always a good game!
The final 40 over match on Thurs could have gone either way with WOKEA posting a defendable score of 159/4. Walding smashed a number of boundaries before her innings was ended on 71 by a superb ball from Knowles. Courtney Sefo also bowled well taking 2-22 off 8 and Hockenhull contributed to the WOKEA total with 42*. AK opening batters Jordan Sefo, 58*, and Captein, 41, led the charge bravely despite putting up a number of chance catches early on. Unfortunately it was not the best fielding display from WOKEA and when Capt Blucher, 28*, was required to bat, the win to AK was ensured in the 24th over making the required total of 161/2 easily in the end. Well deserved AK winner of the McCombie Cup (IB winner).