Tables turned on rep cricketers

Marlborough’s senior men’s rep cricket side was unable to back up a strong performance against Buller, losing outright to Nelson in a Hawke Cup zone three qualifying match at Horton Park today.

Once again, first innings batting woes came back to haunt the home side.

The visitors won the toss and sent Marlborough in to bat on Saturday, eventually dismissing the home side for just 156 in 57.4 overs.

Nelson’s batting was more solid, reaching 254-8 from 59.5 overs before declaring early on Sunday with a lead of 98 runs, their eyes firmly fixed on an outright result.

In their second dig Marlborough batted with more discipline, reaching 224 in 81.2 overs, which left 20 overs late in the day for Nelson to get the 127 runs required for an outright win.

Faced with something of a T20 run chase, Nelson cruised to victory, helped by some sloppy fielding by Marlborough. They ended on 127-6 with 2.3 possible overs still to be bowled.

Marlborough’s first innings batting was again disappointing, the only bright spot being a first half century in Marlborough colours for wicketkeeper/opening batsman Lachie Munro.

Unfortunately, support was hard to find with only Griffin Carter, 30 from 29, Joel Lavender, 26 from 40 and Luke Holdaway, 17 from 56, hanging around as Nelson’s attack held sway.

Leading the way was newcomer Cameron Neame with 3-24 from 10, while spinner Matthew O’Sullivan picked up 3-43.

Driving the Nelson batting effort was openers Carl Quinn, 68 from 80, and Jonty Raxworthy, 61 from 102, while skipper Michael Olsen amassed 54 from 49 to set up the declaration.

Carter’s 2-34 from seven led the Marlborough bowling effort, along with Holdaway’s 2-40 from 11.5.

Trailing by nearly 100, the home side rejigged their batting line-up but quickly lost promoted batsmen Carter and Jaden Adams. However, Munro dug in once more, scoring 31 from 110, and establishing an 81-run partnership with Corey Bovey, who notched 58 from 112. The other partnership of note was one of 94 between Joel Lavender, 70 from 71, and Andrew McCaa, 43 from 59.

However, when they went the runs dried up and Nelson again gained the upper hand, setting up a run chase which quickly became routine when opener Carl Quinn smashed 53 from 32. Although the home side picked up six wickets, including four to Sam Boyce, the horse had well and truly bolted by then.

Marlborough player/coach McCaa was naturally disappointed with the outcome.

“It just shows where we are at … our first innings just wasn’t good enough.

“If you look back at the dismissals there were just some really poor ones. Scoring just 150 we were always behind the eight ball and, although we got ourselves back into it today, getting ourselves in a position to kick on and put together a good total … we just fell over, losing clusters of wickets at important times.

“Then at the end when we needed to defend 120 we dropped six catches and you just can’t do that at this level.”

Next up for Marlborough is their final zone qualifier, against Canterbury Country in Rangiora in mid-January.