Craig Davies’ 123 led his team to victory over Temuka
Star broke through for their first win of the South Canterbury senior cricket season with an uninspiring two-wicket win over Timaru at Ashbury Park 4, on Saturday.
Star chased down Timaru’s 92 all-out off 53 overs, with two wickets remaining and 10 overs to spare in the 100-over match.
With the exception of a five-wicket bag from Star left-arm paceman Craig Hinton, the match was a poor spectacle.
Timaru chose to bat first, but were quickly reduced to 4-4, as Hinton and his captain, Jeremy Lane, used the variable speed of a dry pitch to their advantage.
Three batsmen pushing for South Canterbury Hawke Cup selection, Sam Porter (2), Srinivas KS (0) and Zane Sanders (0) all failed with the bat.
Former Timaru Boys’ High School (TBHS) batsman Josh Dick showed some resilience and dug his toes in to make 22.
Gerald Piddock also added 14, but the run-rate never got above two runs an over for the entire innings.
Nick Galwey (16 not out) and Hayden Leonard (20) took the score from 53 for eight to 87 for nine by playing sensibly and waiting for a bad ball to score off.
Timaru mustered just two boundaries in their innings.
Had Star not dropped four catches, Timaru’s scorecard could have looked far worse.
Hinton finished with five for 20 from 15 overs while fellow seamer Alex McDuff took three wickets.
Star’s shaky batting line-up was given a rev-up by the usually sedate Phil McGregor. The opener hit three boundaries in his score of 30, which was an innings desperately needed for the situation.
McGregor’s departure made things tense for Star, whose middle-order began to buckle under the pressure of being in control of a game.
They went from 35 for 1 to 85 for eight. The needless run-out of Henry Race for 17, did not help and it was left to the duo who did the damage with the ball, Hinton and Lane, to scramble Star to victory.
Leonard snared three middle-order wickets to spark the collapse.
Celtic captain Craig Davies played a captain’s knock of 123 to guide his team to a 38-run win over Temuka at Temuka Oval.
Davies was dropped in the 60s and made the home team pay as he guided his side to 209 all out.
Englishman Matt Woods produced his best effort since arriving in New Zealand to take five for 39 against South Canterbury’s top club side, while former South Canterbury representative Dylan Lees took two wickets in his final game for the Magpies before he left the region.
Temuka’s reply was spirited but lacked the big score Davies had mustered.
Johnny Geddis managed 53 and Nick Horsley 36 but four wickets from Ben Watson put the brakes on the Temuka innings.