DESTROYER: Roncalli's Daniel Dorgan who took 7-19 and already has 10 wickets in the match against Waimate.
Daniel Dorgan was the toast of Roncalli returning from last week’s U18 tournament to take 7-19 and already has 10 wickets for the match as Roncalli routed Waimate for 44 and enforced the follow on at Knottingley Park where the home team still need four more runs to make Roncalli bat again.
At the Celtic Sports Ground while Temuka have managed first innings points they have not been able to force any advantage from the absent Celtic rep players, six of whom will all return next week, while at Mountainview High School a solid 79 by Alex McKenzie to get Star through to 179, was quickly negated as Timaru captain Jordan Morrow hit his second unbeaten half century in as many days to take first innings points and put his team 27 runs in front already and give themselves a week to start planning strategy for day two.
A decidedly younger looking Star team as the club looks to build for the future took the park against an ever strengthening Timaru side that won the toss and decided to bowl.
Indian import Abhishek Baadkar was given a heavy workload and relished it as he took 5-42 from his 20 overs and had support from Zane Sanders with 2-37 while for Star Danny Campbell (30) was the next best after McKenzie.
Dhananjaya Murari brought up his second fifty of the season as a solid batting line-up for Timaru all contributed to the cause, and another good partnership of 66 between Sanders and Morrow made sure of first innings points.
Temuka won the toss and had no hesitation in asking Celtic to bat, not only because of how the wicket looked after rain during the week, but also to try and take advantage of a weakened Celtic side.
Neil and Ants De Joux got Celtic through to 22, before the first breakthrough by Tom McKnight and then Dillon Lees, still smarting over his axing from the rep side after one successful outing, got in on the act taking the next two wickets to have Celtic 29-3.
However a 64 run partnership between Celtic captain James Laming (30) and Willie Wright (32) restored the balance somewhat, only for the rest of the batting to fall quite meekly as batsmen kept going back and getting trapped lbw.
Nathan McNicol (3-21), on a high after making the Canterbury U18 tournament team, took three middle order wickets and Robbie Histen had flattering figures of 2-6 as Celtic succumbed for 126.
In reply, Temuka while not going back and getting their pads in the way, did make the same mistake of going back as the first six batsmen were all dismissed bowled with the experienced Grant Watt enjoying himself as he exploited the conditions on his way to a five wicket bag.
At the other end James Blackstock with 3-13 also bowled well and if it hadn’t been for Temuka stalwart Hayden Broker with a patient but solid 30 to shore up the innings when 61-7 Temuka could have been well behind.
As it was when the 9th wicket fell at 106, numbers 10 and 11, both former senior openers managed to bat through to get Temuka ahead before the declaration came with McNicol, ending 21 not out.
The merits of this policy in terms of the match leave much to discussion, as it took up about 20 overs getting these last 20 runs, overs that may well have been better spent bowling at Celtic again before their reps return, but no doubt this will play out next week.
In Waimate, Dorgan’s dominance with the ball was well supported by Tahir Afridi who has two three wicket hauls as well, while with the bat Harry Millar made a quick 42 not out while earlier Tom Pavletich, relieved of captaincy duties had his best knock of the season scoring 39 while most of his team got into double figures.
It was “one of those days” according to Waimate, and their second innings has been a big improvement with Glen Drake (also in the Canterbury U18 tournament team) making 45, and they will be hoping captain Jason Sew Hoy can turn the game into a competition next week and build substantially on his 28 not out.