Well hopefully this is summer as some good weather finally arrived in Dunedin!
The Bottle-O Eagles started the short and sharp T20 competition on Thursday night up again CDK at Tonga Park. After winning the toss skipper Taylor Cumberland decided we would have a bat. Dylan Fletcher and Jamal Todd opened up for the Eagles and together they smashed 66 runs in the first 5 overs before Dylan was out for 26 (off 15 balls). Unfortunately, in the next over Jamal was then dismissed for a rapid 49 (off 17 balls). Naturally the scoring slowed a little with Volts skipper Luke Georgeson making a solid 31 off 29 balls and Jack Soal & Tommy Clout both making a dozen as the score moved to 153/6 when the 20 overs were completed.
The bowling effort got off to the best possible start with Tommy Clout cleaning out one opener with the first ball of the innings. This set the tone for the rest of the match with some really good fielding and well thought out bowling plans – only one CDK player managed to make double figures as CDK were routed for 79. Larry Vimukthi led the bowling with 3/15 off 4 and not far behind was Dylan with 3/21 off his 4. Tommy Clout chipped in with 2/15 off 3 – an excellent start to the T20 campaign.
Saturday saw the Eagles at Logan Park against NEV – the skipper was hoping to win the toss and have a bat – but called incorrectly and we found ourselves bowling. Tommy took the new ball and bowled into the wind and had a tidy spell to end with 1/24 off his 4 overs. From the other end the Eagles welcomed Mason Clarke, who had travelled from Queenstown with Hugo Bogue, and Mason delivered with his 5th delivery and then again in his second over to have Valley at 22/2. Valley then batted steadily as the Eagles could not force a further break-thru. In the end the spin twins of Matt West and Larry putting some pressure on Valley with Larry taking the 3rd wicket. Westy also had the Valley bats under pressure and forced a false shot as they tried to take a quick single and a direct hit from Jack Soal resulted in a wicket. Then in Westy’s 4th over he claimed one wicket before claiming a second in the same over – however (for the second week in a row) he pivoted to the umpire to appeal for an LBW, which was given, only for his kneecap to ‘pop’ out and then back in as he had to be assisted from the field. So, a final total of 153/9 for Valley had the game sitting reasonably evenly balanced.
However, this balance quickly shifted to Valley as the Eagles batsmen could not get going and many would have been unhappy with their shot selection. It was only the skipper, Taylor Cumberland, who showed any real resistance as he top scored with 24 and the Eagles were rolled for 59.
Off out to Sunnyvale for the afternoon game against the Swamp Rats – again Taylor was keen to win the toss and have a bat, as with the morning this did not happen and we found ourselves in the field again. With the Turkey’s only having one game their skipper Richie Buchanan, playing hisa 50th game for the Eagles, came into replace Westy. Again, we opened with Tommy & Mason but GI got off to a fast start and had 64 on the board in the 7th over when Dylan made the break-thru and he followed this up in his second over to have GI as 66/2. GI started to rebuild before Larry came into the attack and took two wickets to end his four overs with a tidy 2/23. Dyland came back and secured his 3rd wicket and helped slow things down and with GI ending on 155/6 this was probably around 30 runs less than they looked like getting.
After losing a wicket second ball Dyland joined Jamal Todd and together, they moved the score nicely to 50 at the end of five overs when Jamal was out for 32 (off 17 balls). Dylan keep things going but when he fall for a just over a run a ball 34 and the score at 84, a collapse then saw the Eagles slump to 97/6 in the 15th over. Tommy Clout came to the wicket and hit fast forward as he tried to bring the boys back into the competition but with his score on 30 (off just 17 balls) was dismissed with the score at 131 in the 19th over and a runt out meat we needed 22 off the last over. Richie had come to the crease and after a leg bye off the first ball had the five balls to score 21 – he dispatched the two deliveries over the boundary to leave 9 off the last three. In hind sight he may not have taken a single of the 4th ball - he was back on strike for the last ball, after another leg bye was scrambled, needing a maximum to tie the scores – he made a good effort but was caught in the deep and the Eagles had suffered their second loss of the day.
The Turkeys, after initially being schooled to play at Brooklands, then transferred to Tonga Park, finally played their match against Taieri at the Kensington Oval. After winning the toss skipper Richie Buchanan decided they would have a bowl. Luke Ritchie took the new ball and had immediate success taking two wickets. Navi Singh, Richie and a little surprisingly Nathan Sims all had spells that yielded a wicket to each of them and Taieri was in trouble. Luke came back to finish his spell and claimed a further wicket to finish with 3/15 off his four. Nathan also claimed a second to have the figures of 2/13 off four. Richie bowled the 18th & 20th over claiming the final two wickets to finish with the impressive figures of 3/7 off 3.5 overs – so Tairi could only manage 90 all out.
Luckily Nathan had done the business with the ball as he got a first baller! Binu Antony (13) and Lewis Garden (13) both moved the score along before they were dismissed. This left Josh Stanton (15*) and Jeremy Smallridge (22*) to complete a comprehensive seven wicket victory with 4 overs to spare.
The Turkeys were scheduled to play NEV Cygnets in the afternoon – but got the points after Valley defaulted. So, 2 from 2 in their T20 competition.
The Kilda had the bye this week.