By Gary Caffell
Wairarapa College recovered from a horror start to beat Rongotai College by 58 runs in their boys first XI cricket match this week.
Batting first on their home pitch Wairarapa College were rocked with the first three wickets falling before their score had even reached double figures but their innings was resurrected by Oliver Bunny and Jake Young.
Their partnership lasted 17 overs and took the total to 90 before Bunny was out for 14.
Young, the more aggressive of the two, continued to take full toll of any bad balls and brought up his own half century before being dismissed and skipper Frank Dickson also batted well, his 56 coming from 81 balls and including nine fours.
Promising youngster Mark Steventon, fresh from a century in age group play, made a bright 17 off as many balls in his debut for the first XI and there were useful knocks too from Perry Lewis (14) and Patrick Wootton (12) as Wairarapa College were dismissed for 243 in the 49th over.
Rongotai too made a poor start to their innings with Wairarapa College’s opening bowlers Dickson and Eric Bargh getting amongst the wickets and at 57-5 after 21 overs they were in deep strife.
However, Bevan Cox and Matthew Carter threatened to revive their fortunes when they took the score to 130 before Josh Nelson made the crucial breakthrough.
From there the home team dominated, led by Bargh, who picked up the last four wickets to fall and finished with the impressive figures of 5-37 from 9.2 overs.
Rongotai were all out for 185 in the 48th over with other successful bowlers being Dickson, 2-22 from 10 overs, Bunny, 1-30 from 10 overs, Lewis,1-16 from three overs and Nelson 1-34 from five overs.
On the inter-club front matches in Wairarapa Cricket’s Bidwill Cup competition will continue this weekend with Red Star and Lansdowne doing battle at Queen Elizabeth Park oval tomorrow and Greytown confronting Hutt Academy at Greytown on Sunday.
Right now there are just five points separating the four sides on the competition table with Greytown leading on 20, followed by Hutt 19, Red Star 16 and Lansdowne 15.
A primary objective for Red Star tomorrow will be to have Lansdowne top order batsman Brock Price back in the pavilion before he gets into full stride..
Price has been in grand batting form through most of the season and Lansdowne have relied heavily on his contributions in that department.
Hutt Academy were widely expected to be the dominant force in the Bidwill Cup but a surprise loss to Red Star dented their reputation to some degree and it will be interesting to see if they can rebound against a Greytown side which is always tough to beat at home, and anywhere else for that matter.
This is a game with intriguing dynamics as while Hutt Academy may have more depth in their batting the same can be said about Greytown in the bowling,
