South Canterbury’s William Harvey batting against Mid Canterbury at the Rectory on Friday.
Despite final day blues, South Canterbury under-17 coach Mike Otley is pleased with the effort of his side throughout the week.
The finished the Canterbury under-17 regional tournament in fourth place, a couple of spots higher than their last place finish in 2014.
On the final day on Friday the side faced Mid Canterbury and it was their batting blues from earlier in the week which came back to haunt the side, being bundled out for 62.
“To Mid Canterbury’s credit they bowled really well. They were bowling full and putting pressure on the boys and unfortunately for us we were not quite playing it that well and were getting out,” Otley said.
It was disappointing for him because the last two days the sides batting had been good, Otley said.
Despite their low total, South Canterbury did make their opponents work for the victory.
“We had them five down and we dropped a couple of other chances that could’ve really made things interesting.”
“It was not a huge total but was a tricky one and if we applied pressure in the field we knew we had a chance,” he said.
Otley said they would have loved to have scored more runs.
“Batting unfortunately was our Achilles heel across the week.”
Sean Wills and Mark Otley led from the front with the ball while William Harvey managed to make a couple of scores above 50.
“William batted really well and made the most off opportunities that were given to him.”
Otley highlighted the win against Canterbury Country as their best performance across the five days.
“It was a really good performance everyone stood up in some way and the team were really pleased with the win.”
Otley feels that game may have been the side’s final.
“We probably played our final the day before against Canterbury Country. It would have been nice to finish the tournament with a win at the Rectory but it wasn’t to be.”
He said a number of other players across the squad shone at different times.
“Bailey Dryden was outstanding with gloves for us all week and although they didn’t score a lot of runs at the top of the order Ed Heenan and Ben Stayt did a good job seeing off the new ball for us.”
Christchurch Metro, who beat South Canterbury in a twenty20 match last Monday, took out the overall tournament with a victory over Christchurch Metro Red. Mid Canterbury was third, South Canterbury fourth, Canterbury Country fifth and Buller took home the wooden spoon.