This week (Dec 19th – 22nd 2011) the South Canterbury YR 9 Boys Representative team is playing their annual tournament in Christchurch. Scores and match reports will be updated as they become available.
Tournament Team
Top Left: Shane Gilkison (Coach), Matt McKenzie, Josh Mehrtens, Caleb Grace, George Morgan, Alistair Harvey (C), William Carter. Front: Steve Phillips, Same Lane, Wyatt McAughtrie, Connor Bradley, Lawrence Darling, Chris Hogan.
Game One
South Canterbury vs Buller
The first match of the week got under way with an emphatic win to South Canterbury as they set out to defend the trophy won by last season’s team.
Batting first South Canterbury scored 180 from 48.4 overs. Two South Canterbury batsmen scored half centuries with Alastair Harvey making 52 and Sam Lane 51.
In reply Buller were dismissed for 40 with William Carter returning the amazing figures of 5 wickets for no runs off his three overs.
Game Two
South Canterbury vs Metro Black
South Canterbury continued their winning way with victory over the strong Metro Black side from Christchurch.
Batting first the second wicket partnership of 45 between Caleb Grace (14) and Alastair Harvey (43) set a platform and with Matt McKenzie (19), Sam Lane (19) and George Morgan (11) all making double figures South Canterbury eventually made 150 when all out in the 45th over.
In reply while one Metro batsman made fifty, the bowlers steadily chipped away at his partners with McKenzie continuing his good match taking 3-24 from his 10 overs, Josh Mehrtens took 3-37 and Grace 2-16 as South Canterbury kept to their task to dismiss Metro Black for 143, still 8 runs short of victory.
Game Three (Wednesday Twenty20)
South Canterbury vs Canterbury Country
South Canterbury batted first in today’s T20 match, and a revamped batting order to suit the shorter game soon had the scoreboard ticking over with Sam Lane (19) and George Morgan (9) adding 33 for the opening partnership. Wickets fell steadily with the team at one stage 73-6 before Chris Hogan (13), William Carter (20*) and Wyatt McAughtrie (16*) all batting with better than 100% strike rates gave a surge to the tail to eventually get South Canterbury through to 125.
Canterbury Country began strongly and appeared to be cruising at 77-2 after 10 overs before good spells from the change bowlers suddenly evened the match back up as Caleb Grace took 3-18, Morgan 2-9 and Chris Hogan 2-22.
Coach Shane Gilkison would have been biting his nails as Hogan bowled a great last over breaking the 19 run eighth wicket partnership when there was a run out off his third ball.
This left Country needing 4 runs from 3 balls with 2 wickets in hand for victory – now they were the favourites! Hogan responded emphatically by bowling the Country batsmen next ball and suddenly they had two new batsmen at the crease and still needed 4 runs to win, while South Canterbury needed to restrict the runs or take a wicket.
The fifth ball was hit for two runs leaving the last ball of the over needing to be a two or more for Country to win, or a dot ball or wicket ball for South Canterbury to win. Alas, Country scored a single leaving the match as a tie – the second best result from our perspective, and a good fightback.
Game Four (Wednesday Twenty20)
South Canterbury vs West Coast /Canterbury Country / Christchurch
After the tied match in the morning, South Canterbury were soon back in winning form as they beat the Combined side by 71 runs in this afternoon’s T20 match.
South Canterbury batted first and William Carter continued his fine tournament contributing the top score of 33. He was well supported by Chris Hogan (29), Matt McKenzie (22), while Lawrence Darling finally got going with 10 and Steve Phillips also had his best knock scoring 29 batting at No 7 to help South Canterbury to 142 from their 20 overs.
This was much too much for the combined team who were all out in the 17th over for 71. Five bowlers picked up wickets with Chris Hogan returning the best figures of 3-12.
Game Five – Final – (Thursday)
South Canterbury played Metro White in the tournament final in a fifty over match as they set about defending the title won by last year’s South Canterbury YR 9 side.
Batting first it was always hard going with five of the first six batsmen getting starts, but only Matt McKenzie with 37 carried on. Eventually South Canterbury were dismissed in the 47th over for 124 and looked to have the odds stacked against them.
Chris Hogan picked up Metro’s first wicket in the second over when the total was 15 but then Metro’s two best batsmen added a further 61 runs before William Carter picked up the first of his 3 wickets to have Metro still well placed at 76-2 after 20 overs.
However, this breakthrough led to more as the Metro wickets started to tumble and they were suddenly 88-5, but still with their eventual top scorer at the crease.
When Caleb Grace had him caught by Lawrence Darling off his bowling at 103-6, Metro began to look decidedly shaky with wickets falling at 107-7 and then 110-8 and at 116-9 South Canterbury had turned the game back in their own favour. Unfortunately, like earlier in the week during the Twenty20 matches, the last wicket proved costly as the final pair added 8 more runs to have the scores tied at 124 each.
Up stepped Matt McKenzie who wasn’t going to let his runs from earlier go to waste, bowling the No 11 with his second ball in the 38th over to tie the match and defend the trophy.
Well done boys!!
Amazingly, some cricketers can play a whole career without being involved in a tied match, and the South Canterbury boys have had two in a week.
South Canterbury vs Metro White YR 9 Tournament Final Scoreboard