By Gary Caffell
There will be at least two changes to the Wairarapa senior men’s cricket squad to play Taranaki at Queen Elizabeth Park oval in Masterton this Saturday and Sunday from that which shared the points with Whanganui in their rain-affected Hawke Cup qualifying round match at Whanganui last weekend.
Opening batsman Nathan Elliott and spinner Peter Aiken are both unavailable and a doubt also exists over the fitness of captain Gordon Reisima who has a dislocated finger.
The inclement weather meant the second day of the Whanganui match was washed out after Wairarapa experienced mixed fortunes on the first day, dismissing Whanganui for just 196 in their first innings but then losing three wickets for just two runs in reply.
Coach Neil Perry was “very happy” with the Wairarapa bowling effort, saying that with an ounce or two of luck they actually could have had Whanganui out for a much lesser total.
“Honestly I reckon we must have gone past the outside edge of the bat 40 or 50 times, we just couldn’t get the nicks,” he said.
Spearheading the Wairarapa attack were pacemen Stefan Hook-Sporry and Daniel Ingham and they both maintained a consistent line and length on a pitch which was slow and two paced.
Ingham’s economy rate was most impressive.
He conceded only 27 runs from his 22 overs and claimed three wickets in the process.
Hook-Sporry’s effort to take 3-26 from 20 overs was also noteworthy as he was battling sickness while the two debutantes Peter Sigvertsen and Peter Aiken had the distinction of taking their first wickets at this level, medium pacer Sigvertsen being his typical miserly self in claiming 2-20 off his 12 overs and spinner Aiken finishing with 1-13 from four overs.
For part-time spinner Robbie Speers his 1-53 off 12 overs was notable too as from his own recollections it was his first senior rep wicket for some 17 seasons while Reisima gave up just 15 runs in his 10 overs and Kelsey Fahey 15 runs from four overs.
All told more than 30pc of the overs bowled by Wairarapa were maidens.
There was little time left for the Wairarapa top order batsmen to make any positive impact on the game but unfortunately three of them, openers Elliott and George Deans, and first drop Liam Burling all lost their wickets before stumps were drawn.
Coach Perry agreed that did take some of the gloss of the bowling performance but he also expressed confidence in the ability of the Wairarapa middle and lower order to take their team to a first innings lead should play have continued on the second day.
“Obviously it wasn’t the sort of start to the innings we wanted but we had enough depth to recover and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t have happened.”
