Timaru senior reserve batsman hits 200
FORMER Canterbury age-group cricketer Tim Mackle overcame a wet, heavy ball to smash 200 — the top score across all grades this season – for his Timaru senior reserve side on Saturday.
The 27-year-old was run out for a neat 200 in the 43rd over of a 45-over match against the Timaru Boys’ High School 2nd XI at Ashbury Park on Saturday.
The opening batsman hit five sixes and 22 fours and averaged almost five runs an over to boost his team to a massive score of 375.
Timaru then bowled out the schoolboys for 180 to propel them into this Saturday’s final against Star.
Mackle said he could not explain why the runs flowed so freely from his bat, other than ‘‘it just kept on happening’’ – despite occasional drizzle making the ball heavy.
The double century is Mackle’s highest-ever score, and just pipped James Spence’s 196 for Roncalli White last month.
Mackle said he had to over-come cramp from the 100-run mark, and the damp conditions forced him to adjust his approach away from his usual strength of hitting down the ground to scoring more runs behind square.
Because of work commitments he had not attended practices this season and was only playing on alternate weekends in order to look after his young son William, he said.