CENTURIES to Rowen Milburn, Alex McKenzie and Harry Millar set up representative cricket wins for the South Canterbury women’s, under-19 boys and under-15 boys teams respectively last Sunday.
The women, playing the third round of the Aotea Cup at Aorangi, recorded their second win after batting first and scored 211-3 from 40 overs against Dunedin.
Milburn’s 116 was the stand-out performance as she and Bridget McMaster (29) added 165 for the first wicket. Courtney Buckman scored 12 while Kim Cotton and Megan Linton both finished 18 not out.
In reply Dunedin started well, scoring 93 runs before the fall of the first wicket, but after the run out of their top batsman for 66 it was a steady procession back to the tent for the Dunedin batsmen with Libby Stuck taking 2-35. Milburn capped off a great day with 2-20 while Grace Kerridge and Megan Linton picked up a wicket each.
A 170-run innings, including 17 fours and three sixes by McKenzie in the under-19 match against North Otago was the outstanding contribution to that match. McKenzie was the dominant batter in the first of three partnerships which were all in excess of 90 runs. He was also well supported by Tom Bouch (31), Liam Crowley (30) and Hayden Matthews (33) as South Canterbury set an imposing total of 337-6 from their 50 overs.
North Otago set about the chase well adding 94 before the fall of a wicket, but after the loss of their top three (B Cant 61, J Shields 47, S Conlon 41) and the introduction of Phil Lill (3-44), Mckenzie with 2-29 and Bouch 2-9, the North Otago innings faltered as they lost their last six wickets for the addition of only 55 runs and were eventually all out for 236 in the last over.
South Canterbury under-15 played Mid Canterbury and after winning the toss batted first.
The first wicket fell early before a superb unbeaten 122 from Millar and 80 from Josh Dick added more than 170 runs for the second wicket allowing South Canterbury to reach 265-4 from their allotted overs.
Mid Canterbury were always behind the required run rate in the chase, especially against the steady bowling of all the bowlers used, with Josh Rooney with four overs, two maidens, eight runs and two wickets leading the way.
Robbie Mulvena had a good spell also, taking 1-25 off his 10 overs.
Most of the other bowlers also shared the spoils with a wicket each.
Wicketkeeper Matt Brown showed his class by taking two good catches standing up to the stumps and eventually South Canterbury won with Mid Canterbury still more than 70 runs short – finishing at 192-7.
These successful South Canterbury teams will now be hoping to continue this form on into their various tournaments over the next month.