Roncalli captain Tom Pavletich turns a ball to leg while fellow batsman Ryan De Joux backs up and keeper for Waimate Nathan Sew Hoy follows the flight of the ball.
Roncalli College’s reliance on their adult batsmen came back to bite them in their four-wicket loss to Waimate in South Canterbury senior Twenty20 club cricket last night at Aorangi Oval.
Roncalli’s key batting trio of Ryan de Joux, Tahir Afridi and Ed Kilbee, who have done most of the run-scoring so far this season, were all removed before they could take the match away from Waimate and it forced the schoolboys to try to make the bulk of the runs.
After 12 overs, though, Roncalli were eight down and unlikely to see out their overs.
Only a gritty 10th wicket stand of 17 saw them through to the 19th over, and in to three figures, finishing at 101 all out.
Kilbee was removed early by Allan Reid.
It would be the first of three key wickets for the opening bowler, as he removed Roncalli captain Tom Pavletich (2), caught at gully by Nathan Sheppard, and Ben Simpson (0) who was bowled.
It was then the spin of Glen Drake which took over as he used the wind to get some drift for his deliveries.
He exploited the conditions well to take three middle-order wickets, including Harry Millar for 11 after he had put on 30 with de Joux for the fifth wicket.
The former Celtic batsman had played a calculated innings early, using the wind to assist with his boundary hitting. However, when Connor Farrell bowled him for 35, Roncalli’s chances of a big total were gone.
Farrell finished with 3 for 25, while Reid ended with 3 for 16 and Drake managed 3 for 17.
The Waimate openers of Nathan Sew Hoy and Sheppard wasted little time in trying to knock off the target.
The pair went at more than sevens runs an over for the first five, before Sew Hoy was bowled by McDuff with the second ball of his spell, for 25.
It turned the momentum of the match slightly, as Waimate went from 39 without loss to 40 for three, largely thanks to two wickets in two balls from Afridi.
The rescue operation was left to Reid, who played more sedately, as others blazed away.
Scott Willoughby hit two sixes on his way to 15, but it was Reid’s sixth-wicket partnership of 33, with Lachie Robertson, which lasted long enough to get Waimate within reach of their target.
Reid hit the winning runs with 20 balls to spare and ended on 34 not out.
Afridi had figures of 3 for 12 from his four overs, while McDuff had 1 for 19 from two.