South Canterbury’s Stanley Mair is all smiles after taking eight wickets against Southland at Queens Park.
Career-best figures from South Canterbury quick bowler Stanley Mair have helped South Canterbury claim first innings points against Southland at Queens Park Oval in Invercargill.
His haul of 8-74 was integral in getting South Canterbury the eight points for their 18 run win in their southern zone Hawke Cup match.
The match was played on the pitch used by the Otago Volts in their two matches in Invercargill recently and it suited the batsmen, with little assistance for the bowlers.
Mair, who picked up a five-wicket haul for South Canterbury against Mid Canterbury back in November, said it was a tough pitch to bowl on.
“I’m really happy with the way I bowled. It was really good and it came out nicely.”
He said his time playing cricket in the North Island helped.
“I have played on pitches like this before so I sort of knew what to expect and how to bowl on it.”
The 23-year-old’s match figures were his best.
“I have never taken eight wickets before so that was pretty cool to have done that.”
Conditions favoured the batsmen and he said he had to be patient to pick up wickets.
“I had to bowl those boring line and lengths and hoped they made the mistakes,” he said.
Four of Mair’s eight wickets were bowled and two of those were in successive deliveries.
“I tried but just couldn’t get the hat-trick,” he said.
He feels it was the best he had bowled all season and it was pleasing to be able to contribute to a good allround team performance.
“They’re a good bunch of guys to play cricket with.”
South Canterbury won the toss and decided to bat first. They made it through to 261 thanks to handy contributions from Jack Harper who made 76 and Prabodha Arthavidu chipped in with 58 Craig Smith, Jason Osborne and Jonathon Hodson all bowled with great patience to pick up three-wickets each.
The rest of the South Canterbury top order all made starts but no-one was able to kick on and take them past 300.
South Canterbury player-coach Nick Horsley felt they were probably 50 runs light.
“All credit to Southland I thought they bowled really well. We were well placed at lunch at 130-2 and to lose all those wickets and be out for under 300 was a great effort by them.”
He said a couple of soft dismissals, something which also haunted the side against North Otago, and batsmen unable to kick on could have cost the side again.
“We’re just lucky it didn’t and that we managed to claim the victory,” Horsley said.
“That was a day-three day-four first-class wicket and to pick up that number of wickets on a pitch like that is a top effort.”
In reply, Southland scored 244.
They had handy contributions throughout the order, but like South Canterbury, the batsmen were unable to kick on.
Harsh Visavadiya top scored with 56 before chipping one to Jack Harper at short cover off left-arm spinner Glen Drake, opener Sam Ward made 46, Shaun Fitzgibbon 44 and Craig Smith 43 not out but Mair’s bowling proved the difference.
Sam Carlaw and Drake picked up the other two wickets.
Horsley said it was a great way to head into the off-season.
“I’m really happy, that win shows we’re the second best team in the zone and we could’ve easily been the best if it wasn’t for the North Otago match and wet weather. It show’s we’re not too far off getting a challenge.”
Southland captain Jason Domigan said it was a great spell of bowling by Mair and he throuoghly deserved his wickets.
South Canterbury captain Sam Carlaw paid tribute to groundsman Mike Davies.
“It was a pleasure to play a game like this on a quality cricket wicket.”
South Canterbury finished on 25 points well behind North Otago with 44 points.
| SOUTH CANTERBURY First Innings | SOUTHLAND First Innings |
|---|---|
| A Beck c Duffy b Hodson 23 J Marais c Fitzgibbon b Osborne 17 E Arthavidu c Andrews-Kennedy b Osborne 58 J Harper c Smith b Osborne 76 N Horsley lbw Smith 18 G Drake c Osborne b Hodson 28 S Carlaw run out 6 L Beck c Duffy b Smith 12 S Mair c Fitzgibbon b JM Hodson 12 A McDuff b Smith 0 C Hinton not out 1 Extras (1b, 4lb, 1w, 4nb) 10 Total (for 10 wkts, 73.3 overs) 261 Fall: 1-32, 2-7, 3-179, 4-186, 5-208, 6-234, 7-241, 8-259, 9-259, 10-261 Bowling: C Smith 19-5-62-3, J Osborne 17-3-53-3, B Andrews-Kennedy 9-2-47-0, J Hodson 14.3-3-30-3, J Domigan 7-0-35-0, H Visavadiya 7-0-29-0. | J Ng b Mair 6 S Ward c & b Carlaw 46 W Kindley b Mair 0 R Duffy lbw Mair 11 S Fitzgibbon c Beck b Mair 44 H Visavadiya c Harper b Drake 56 J Domigan lbw Mair 6 C Smith not out 43 J Osborne lbw Mair 20 B Andrews-Kennedy b Mair 0 J Hodson b Mair 3 Extras (6lb, 3nb) 9 Total (for 10 wickets, 68.4 overs) 244 Fall: 1-20, 2-20, 3-39, 4-94, 5-125, 6-133, 7-204, 8-236, 9-238, 10-244 Bowling: C Hinton 12-3-47-0, S Mair 22.4-5-74-8, J Harper 10-1-42-0, A McDuff 4-0-24-0, S Carlaw 18-3-39-1, G Drake 2-0-12-1. |