Match report for South Canterbury Primary Development team vs Dunedin Metro at Tonga Park, Dunedin on Sunday 9th March 2014.
South Canterbury won the toss on a overcast and chilly day in Dunedin and asked Dunedin Metro to bat first.
Dunedin got off to a slow but steady start, with some tight bowling and good fielding from the South Canterbury team. With the outfield being of a reasonable length, the boundaries were few and far between as any decent shot along the ground struggled to make in towards the rope.
Opening bowlers Jack Thomson and Luka Foy bowled tightly and after 10 overs the score was just 17, but the Dunedin boys played straight and did not give their wickets away.
At drinks Dunedin had moved to 43-1 off 20 overs with William Snuggs bowling one of the set Dunedin openers with a beautifully flighted delivery that turned and hit middle stump.
At 30 overs things were still looking good for SC with the score at 73-4. Unfortunately for SC, the Dunedin boys who had wickets in hand, hit out in the last 10 overs and with extras mounting through wides and no-balls the score ballooned out to 118-6 at the close of the 40 overs.
For South Canterbury, the bowling honours went to Lleyton Phillips who bowled impressively in 2 spells to end with 2-17 off his 8 overs. TJ Lensley also grabbed 2 wickets, but bowled 7 wides and 1 no-ball to have figures of 2-8 off 3 overs.There was also a wicket apiece for Jack Thomson and William Snuggs. Lleyton Phillips also took an outstanding catch diving forward at mid off to dismiss the Dunedin captain.
Faced with a decent challenge to score at 3 an over where they knew that most of the runs would need to come in singles and two’s, SC openers Will Davenport and Jacob Boal looked to get off to a good start by running quick singles early on. Unfortunately Boal was bowled before he had scored, and this brought Luka Foy to the wicket. In partnership, Foy and Davenport played some handsome strokes but were frustrating by the outfield denying them the runs the shots deserved. In an attempt to up the rate Davenport started to hit over the top but after some lovely shots, mistimed one and was caught by the bowler for 11. Foy struggled to keep the score moving, as his attractive shots either went straight to the fielders or pulled up in the long grass. He was eventual bowled for a patient 11. Some handy innings from Harry Lyon 8, Cougan Brown 6 and TJ Lensley who was run out from a 40m direct hit for 7, helped SC move to 77-6 in the 27th over, but with wickets falling at regular intervals it was left to Jack Thomson to try and get SC through to their target. Thomson was eventually dismissed at 88-8 for a well compiled 12, and this left the injured Ben McRae and No 10 William Snuggs and No 11 Mitchell Sowden to score the remaining runs. They put up a good effort, but when Snuggs was run out going for 2 in the 39th over, SC were 13 short of there target, being dismissed for 105.
Overall the SC boys put up a good fight, but to many extras (wides 26 & no-balls 7), which resulted in an extra 30 balls being bowled and not being able to adapt to the slow outfield meant they were left to rue their chances on the long drive back to Timaru.
The Primary Development’s last match of the season is on Sunday 23rd Match at Geraldine Domain against Christchurch Metro.