A South Canterbury invitation side played a pre-season match against Old Boys Collegians from Christchurch at The Rectory in Timaru today, and despite interruptions from the weather managed to get through the match with each team facing 34 overs.
OBC won the toss and batted first and it soon showed that batting is easier pre-season than bowling and fielding as OBC piled on the runs, helped by five dropped catches, and in the end only Kevin Teahen was successful with the ball taking the one wicket to fall. OBC retired 5 batsmen (one retired hurt) on their way to 204 as the ball regularly found the boundary, and became more difficult to bowl as the damp outfield soon made it quite greasy.
Rain stopped play and then lunch was taken and South Canterbury batted.
Bill Walsh top-scored with 79
Despite the opposition opening with spinners, something most opening batsmen dislike, South Canterbury set about their task of building an innings positively. A run out of captain Richie Preston when the score was 17 didn’t help, but then Bill Walsh and Maulik Patel settled in to add 68 runs for the second wicket before Maulik was out for 39. Les Humphris hung around with Walsh as they added a further 36 runs before he was out for 9 and then Jason Sew Hoy on debut hit two sixes and two fours in his 23.
However Bill Walsh did everything the selectors asked for as he batted time and made a solid 79 with plenty of nice shots including 8 fours and a six before being out caught by which time South Canterbury still needed 40 odd runs off the final over which was a hill too high.
The point of the game was for the players to get out in the middle and get their season under way, and there were plenty of positives for the selectors and coaches, and it bodes well to have plenty of competition for places in the Hawke Cup team later in the year.
South Canterbury Invitation vs Old Boys Collegians
Timaru, Sept 24 2011 _ Scoreboard after the forty over match at
The Rectory:-
Old Boys Collegians
First innings 204-6
J Abraham retired 53
G McCarthy c Patel b Teahen 7
K Murphy retired hurt 22
H McCarthy retired 34
L Van Beek retired 42
Red Helmet retired 39
L Tutty not out 6
A Gangupati not out 1
Extras (1b, 1lb, 6w, 1nb) 9
Total (34 overs) 204
Bowling: K Teahen 5-0-1-27-1, C Hinton 4-0-19-0, L Humphris 5-0-27-0, D Lees 5-1-29-0,
J Morrow 1-0-13-0, N McNicol 7-1-36-0, N Galwey 2-0-24-0, M Patel 2-0-18-0, B Walsh 3-0-15-0.
South Canterbury
First innings 173-5
B Walsh c b Gangupati 79
R Preston run out 7
M Patel c b H McCarthy 39
L Humphris c b Gangupati 9
J Sew Hoy c b T Van W 23
J Morrow not out 6
D Lees not out 5
Extras (3lb, 11w) 14
Total (for 5 wkts, 34 overs) 173
Fall: 17 (Preston), 85 (Patel), 121 (Humphris), 163 (Sew Hoy).
Bowling: A Gangupati 8-1-39-2, T Van W 8-0-52-0, S O'Rawe 2-0-10-0, B Bellamy 5-0-24-0,
P Knight 1-0-1-0, H McCarthy 5-1-7-1, A N Other 1-0-5-0.
Result: Old Boys Collegians won by 31 runs.