Sun, Dec 13, 2020 6:09 PM

Marlborough cricketers claim outright win

news-card
avatar-news-card

Peter Jones

Marlborough put themselves in pole position for a Hawke Cup challenge when they registered a nine-wicket outright win over Buller at Horton Park today.

After losing on the first innings to Hawke Cup-holders Canterbury Country last weekend, the Marlborough side made no mistake this time around, dismissing Buller twice in two days and knocking off the 71 runs required to claim maximum points.

Today’s result, coupled with the fact Country are in the same zone, means Marlborough will hold a slight points advantage over closest rival Nelson when the two meet at Horton Park on January 23-24 to decide who goes forward to challenge Country at the end of January.

Marlborough won the toss on Saturday morning and quickly got into their work. At 52-2, Buller were beginning to build their innings before medium pace bowler Will Smith stepped up.

He bowled the experienced Andrew Duncan, dismissed veteran Troy Scanlon lbw with his next ball, then completed his first-ever hat-trick by trapping Frano Volckman in front with his next delivery.

It was a game-changing over, the visitors struggling to rebuild their innings from then on. Twenty runs from both Jack Ferguson and Nathan Thompson enabled them to limp to 112 from 36.3 overs as the Marlborough medium pacers took control.

Smith added a five-wicket bag to his hat-trick, finishing with 5-35 from 12 overs, while Sam Boyce claimed 4-17 from 7.3 to maintain the momentum.

Marlborough’s reply was based around a couple of solid partnerships, with several batsman getting a start but failing to go on as they battled to 211 all out from 62.2 overs.

Tom Sutherland (27 from 91) and Andrew McCaa (42 from 71) put on 54 for the second wicket, then Matthew Stretch (25 from 57) and Bailey Andrews-Kennedy (34 from 38) added 53 for the seventh wicket. Benjamin Ivory-McCullum chipped in with an unbeaten 24 to allow Marlborough a 99-run advantage when their final wicket fell late in the first day.

In the 10 overs before stumps, Buller had lost two wickets for the addition of just 14 runs and things got quickly worse on Sunday morning. However, after slipping to 57-4, the middle order came to the party, ensuring Marlborough had to bat again. Thompson (38 from 54), Scanlon (47 from 75) and Duncan (31 from 47) provided the bulk of the runs from the middle order as they amassed 169 from 61.2 overs.

Nick Weaver, 3-23 from 12, Boyce with 2-25 from 13, Andrews-Kennedy, 2-45 from 10, and Stretch, 2-16 from 8.2, were the main wicket-takers, their efforts not helped by some ordinary catching from the home side.

Needing just 71 runs, with plenty of time to get them, Marlborough comfortably got the job done, despite losing opener Tom Sutherland with just three runs on the board. Ivory-McCullum (32 from 80) and McCaa (40 from 49) were unbeaten as the outright win was completed shortly before tea.

Marlborough coach Jarrod Englefield said that after the loss to Country a first innings win was essential, but getting an outright had “given the group a lot of confidence – it’s a great result”.

“Will Smith continues to bowl in good areas, another five-for, Nick Weaver had a good second innings and the other bowlers are chipping in with wickets too. From a bowling point of view we are doing well, from a batting point of view we are getting starts and that’s a bit frustrating but the most important thing is that we actually got the result that we needed.”

While very satisfied with the result he said there were some areas of the side’s game that required sharpening up before they take on Nelson.

“Our fielding, especially catching, obviously needs a bit of work so we will be working hard on that going into the next match,” he added.

Marlborough App Logo
Marlborough App
About
Contact
Marlborough App is owned by Top South Media. a locally owned media company.