On an overcast and somewhat cool Dunedin Saturday, in the end, both the Eagles and Turkeys managed to complete their matches. The Kilda had the bye on Saturday.
After being transferred from Sunnyvale to Bishopscourt – due to the covers leaking at Sunnyvale, for the match against Green Island (that was also for the Vic Crimp Memorial) – we found when we lifted the covers at Bishopscourt there was a very wet strip that ran the length of the pitch – so a delayed start was in order. Finally at 12.45pm the game started and had been reduced to 44 overs. GI winning the toss decided that the Eagles would bat. We opened up with Josh Olliver and Jamal Todd, but quickly found ourselves one down in the first over. Jamal was joined by Max Makeham and they moved the score to 28 when Jamal was out for 17 and our 3rd wicket fell at the same score. Connor Macleod and Max set about trying to steady the innings, but with the score at 52 in the 12th over Max was undone for 18. This had Connor and Ethan Price together and they both batted sensible, putting away the loos delivery and defending others and they had taken the score to 128 in the 32nd over when, as has been the case numerous times this season, we lost wickets in a clump with Ethan out for 20 and Connor, after bringing up his maiden 50 for the Eagles, out for 53 and then Westy got a first baller and suddenly we where 7 down at 128. Dylan Fletcher and skipper for the day Tommy Clout set about rebuilding with Tommy taking the aggressive approach as he made 41 of just 33 deliveries before he was out. Patrick Arnold hit 10 off 9 balls and when the rain came again in the 42nd over the score sat at 205/9 with Dylan unbeaten on 24. The rain meant our innings finished at this point and lunch was taken.
We played resumed GI had a revised target of 208 to win from 42 overs. The Swamp Rats got off to a fast start, but another rain interruption stopped their momentum. After a 30-minute stoppage the game resumed and for reasons unknown the Umpires declared it was still a 42 over match. In the 4th over Patrick made the initial break thru and with his last ball of the over cleaned out the GI No 3 to have the score at 25/2. After coming in at first change at the other end Dylan struck in the 8th over and Patrick followed up in the 11th to have GI in trouble at 35/4. A solid partnership then took the score to 71 in the 20th over before Ethan Price struck and in the next over Josh also claimed a wicket to have the Eagles back on top at 71/6. Tommy came back into the attack from the other end and in the 28th then 30th over claimed the 7th & 8th wicket to have the score sitting at 127/8. After opening the attack Larry Vimukthi came back to the bowling crease and quickly claimed the last two GI wickets to finish their innings at 147 and a solid 60 run (DLS) victory for the Eagles.
The Turkeys had been moved from grass at Kensington to the artificial strip at Culling for their match against NEV Sunrisers who decided they would have a bat after winning the toss. After making a fast start to be 24/0 in the 4th over Liam Fisher struck twice in that over and then again in the 6th to reduce Valley to 28/3. Liam keep up the wicket taking when he again struck twice in the 8th over to have Valley at 44/5 as Liam had 5. Then Liam claimed his 6th to further reduce Valley to 60/6 and he then completed his 9 overs on the bounce to finish with the impressive figures of 6/31. From the other end Luke Ritchie then Freddy Birch kept the run scorer under control as Liam took the wickets. Luke Marsh then came into the attack, along with skipper Ollie Ritchie – but it was Luke that did all the damage as he took the final four Valley wickets to finish with 4/14 off his 4 overs and Valley was all out for 128 at the end of 27 overs.
Binu Antony and Lewis Garden opened up for the Turkeys and both played aggressively as the weather looked to turn for the worse again – they had put on 57 when Lewis fell in the 7th over for 32 of just 21 balls. Binu was joined by Luke and the scoring rate keep going until Binu was out for 35 off the first ball of the 11th over having faced just 29 balls with the team score sitting at 81. Another wicket made it 86/3, but Luke kept up the scoring rate and was on a run a ball 24 when the rain came in the 14th over at 111/3 – with 20 overs required to constitute a match and the Turkeys only needing 18 more runs, it was just going to be a matter of waiting until the shower passed before they could get back on to finish the match. For some reason NEV decided they had had enough and said the game is yours – so I guess technically a ‘forfeit’ maybe, but either way a very solid and impressive win for the Turkeys