South Canterbury U16 played Mid Canterbury on a hot summer’s day in Geraldine in the fianl warm-up match before their tournament to be played on 12 – 16 Dec in Rangiora.
Mid Canterbury won the toss and chose to bat. They battled along to 90 for 4 off 30 overs, then with wickets in hand started scoring more freely finishing 206 for 6 off their 50 0vers. The South Canterbury fielding was sharp most times (with some lapses though) and keeper Jamie Trezise kept well conceding no byes. Kyle Montgomery (2-24) and Liam Beck (2-50) were the most successful of the bowlers.
In reply South Canterbury lost early wickets to be 47-3 when Liam Beck came to the crease and battled well for his 73, and had a good partnership of 61 with James Hawkey, but generally the wickets fell too easily throughout the innings due to poor desicion making by some batsmen.
The run rate for SC was never the problem with runs coming easily, and Mid Canterbury contributing too as they gave away 30 wides, and if South Canterbury had batted for 50 0vers the score may have been very different, but the Mid Canterbury spinners Josh Worsfeld and Ryan Bell bowled well in the later stages of the innings to control things and their wicket-keeper James Mangin completed a good day by taking 4 catches behind the wicket and 1 stumping.