Wairarapa Cricket’s two most successful clubs Burger King Red Star and McDonald’s Lansdowne, will face off in next month’s Bidwill Cup final.
There was a stark contrast to how the two adversaries progressed to the final though, with Red Star needing only 33 overs in embarrassing the Rathkeale 2XI by 10 wickets and Lansdowne battling to a losing draw with Inspire Living Greytown.
The writing was on the wall early for Rathkeale when they lost their first two wickets off the first two balls of the third over, both LBW to Peter Sigvertsen, after being sent into bat on a grassy Queen Elizabeth Park Oval pitch.
Only number four batter Tyler Robinson, with 10 runs, managed double figures as the out-of-depth students amassed only 36 runs in 27 overs.
All-rounder Jake Jonas picked up four wickets for 12 runs with his accurate medium pacers, and fellow seam bowler George Deans claimed 3-9 from four overs.
Robbie Anderson [22no] and Jonas [14no] were untroubled chasing down the meagre total and brought up the winning runs in the seventh over with a six to Anderson.
Lansdowne only needed to avoid an outright defeat to book their place in the two-day final, and they achieved that, holding on for a losing draw against Greytown at Greytown.
David Mills top-scored with 50 in Greytown’s total of 143 on the low, slow pitch.
In reply, Lansdowne lost four wickets to be in early trouble, but a half-century to Samuel Payne and some resolute lower-order batting saw them finish at 112-5, enough to qualify for the final. The scoreboard for the match was unavailable.
The Bidwill Cup final will be played over two days on the weekend of December 17-18.
BRIEF SCORES
Rathkeale 2XI 36 [Jake Jonas 4-12, Pete Sigvertsen 2-4, George Deans 3-9] lost to Red Star 37-0 [Robbie Anderson 22no, Jonas 14no] by 10 wickets.
