Another great day for Cricket in Dunedin – blue skies and very warm, again just a pity 2 out of the 3 results did not go our way!
The Bottle-O Eagles played their last declaration match against the unbeaten team from Taieri. Playing on the same track as last week we were hoping to win the toss and have a bowl – unfortunately the Taieri skipper called correctly and we found ourselves batting. As was the case last week we quickly found ourselves in deep trouble with four of our first five dismissed for ducks as we sat at 10/4. Hugo Bogue, who had opened, was joined by Patrick Arnold and they slowly tried to rebuild the innings, but Paddy was out for 11 and the score slumped further to 29/5. Hugo was joined by Max Makeham and they both played nicely as the score advanced to 64 when Hugo was out for 45. Skipper Kurt Johnston joined Max but 20 runs later Kurk was also back in the pavilion and when Max (24) was dismissed the end came quickly as we could only manage 102 all out.
Taieri came out with a flurry and it only took them just over 17 overs to reach their target. Tommy clout and Larry Vimukthi both took a wicket, but an easy eight wicket victory for Taieri. Next week back to white ball cricket and hopefully a change in fortune for the Eagles.
The turkeys were up against CDK Tuskers at the Oval and after winning the toss stand-in skipper Ollie Ritchie decided the Turkeys would have a bowl. With only one on the board Jackson Clark struck and four runs later had his second to have CDK at 5/2 and a couple overs later Jackson claimed his third to leave CDK 21/3. After a 60-run partnership Nathan Sims claimed the fourth wicket and with the score at 100 the firth was claimed by Navi Singh. A further 50 run partnership then developed before Binu Anthony struck twice. Back into the attack Jackson then claimed the last three wickets to finish with 6/43 off his nine overs as CDK were all out in the 44th over for 182. Luke Ritchie also bowled solidly finishing with 0/21 off 8 overs and older brother Ollie with 0/29 off nine overs. Binu only bowled 2 overs but claimed 2/6.
The chase was quickly in trouble with both openers out and only 7 runs on the board. Back from injury for his first game this season Louis Clydesdale scored 28 and back into the fold for his first game Lucky Singh made 37 and skipper Ollie with 33 had the Turkeys back into the match – nice contributions from Jackson (11) and Luke (20) was unfortunately not quite enough as the last Turkey’s wicket fell in the final over and they ended up 10 runs short at 172 all out.
The Kilda were drawn to play Taieri at Culling, but an email was received on Friday from Taieri advising that they simply could not get numbers and therefore had to default.