South Canterbury’s Josh Mehrtens send down a delivery for the emerging players side.
South Canterbury’s emerging cricket players’ match with Canterbury Country was abandoned due to rain but it reinforced the difficulty player-coach Nick Horsley has in selecting squads.
He was using the match to see if a number of up-and-coming players had what it takes to play at a higher level and a number of them did.
Horsley said it was a worthwhile hit-out.
“It was disappointing we lost out to the rain in the end because I was wanting to see Blair [Brown] and Nick [Maguire] bowl,” he said.
South Canterbury batted first and made it through to 187-7 before rain set in forcing a delay.
Liam Beck top scored with 34, Brown made 33, Adam Beck 30, Stanley Mair 26 not out and Glen Drake 19.
Canterbury Country’s best bowler was Mike McCaughan who took 3-44.
In reply Canterbury Country were 58-3 when the rain set in and forced the match to be abandoned.
Mair had claimed a couple of scalps while Alex McDuff picked up the other wicket.
Horsley said a couple of batsmen let themselves down with shot selection while Mair, [Liam] Beck and Brown all showed great application at the crease.
“They all batted really well. It’s not going to make selecting next weekend’s side any easier.”
He said if the match had continued it would have been interesting to see Brown and Maguire bowl.
“I’d have quite liked to have seen them bowling on that pitch.”
Next weekend the side play Mid Canterbury in a one-day match and it will be the final hit-out for a number of players.
“We will have to see who is available and pick the squad accordingly,” Horsley said.
Scoreboard
| South Canterbury Emerging Players J Naylor ct b Field 12 A Beck b Curnow 30 J Dick ct b Curnow 5 G Drake ct b McCaughan 19 L Beck b McCaughan 34 B Brown ct b Nightingale 33 J Trezise b McCaughan 4 S Mair not out 26 J Mehrtens DNB A McDuff DNB N Maguire DNB B 4, LB 5, W 1, NB 6 EXtras: 16 Total 187 - 7 (42.4 overs) FOW: (43, Naylor), (43A Beck), (56, J Dick), (106, G Drake), (113, L Beck), (119, J Trezise), (183, B Brown). Bowling: T Field 6-2-18-0, M McCaughan 7-2-44-3, C Curnow 6-1-21-3, J Mariu 5-0-34-0, H Fitzpatrick 9-0-34-0, D Nightingale 7.4-1-19-1, A Hooper 3-0-14-0 | Canterbury Country Emerging Players T Hamilton ct b Mair 21 T Rodden b McDuff 13 L Williams not out 13 W Hamilton ct b Mair 2 T Field not out 6 B 0, LB 1, W 2, NB 0 Extras: 3 Total: 58 - 3 (18.1 overs) Bowling: S Mair 7-2-10-2, A McDuff 6-0-30-1, B Brown 3-0-7-0, J Mehrtens 2.1-0-6-0 |