Down to the wire!

Match Reports

Bowled Hira (6-70), caught Chitongo. All wickets fell to spinners.

Premiers
It was one of those games where you never felt as if you ever were on top.
Sometimes, because the opposition is too tough.
Sometimes, because you don't play well enough.
Sometimes it is as simple as winning the toss.
Against high flying Takapuna last Saturday, was all of those.
North Shore rued a wobbly start as Takapuna took the valuable first-innings points to remain in the Hedley Howarth hunt.
Takapuna made the first two breakthroughs before the disastrous run-out of Graeme Beghin set North Shore back further.
Michael Olsen held the middle order together with 52, while Ben Wall (47) played aggressively with the tail to lift North Shore to 182.
Shore all out in the 44th over.
Set just 3.6 an over Takapuna’s start with the bat was the total opposite. Max O’Dowd (49) and Will O’Donnell (39) brushed off the first fifty runs of the chase inside the first six overs before Ronnie Hira, and Tendai Chitongo fought back for North Shore.
Hira struck the first two blows before Chitongo took two wickets of his own.
102/2 quickly became 143/7 as Hira (6-70) bagged the next three wickets. Needing a partnership, Dan James (60*) and Guy Harley (28) put on 74 to ensure a first-innings lead and an extra batting point.

Premier Reserves Major
What promised to be a good days play against a strong Eden Roskill side quickly turned into a day to forget.
North Shore batted first and slumped to 74 all out in just over a session.
Only Jonnie Smith showed some resistance through the middle order as a combination of tight bowling and poor shot selection meant the Shore were bowling early in the day.
Roskill then proceeded to bat incredibly slowly past the home team's first innings total, making their way to 138 off just under 40 overs.
They then declared eight down to deny any bowling points for Shore.
Promising signs from the Shore bowling unit with Matt "Stretch" Strain, Will "Clarkey" Clarke & Angus "Goose" Nichol bowling really nicely to restrict runs and take wickets on a regular basis.
With only one session left in the day, Roskill wanted to play on, so with the loss of one wicket, Shore went passed the Roskill difference and the captains shook hands.
At home next week on the Number 2 against the Kumeu Premier side, the majors will be looking for a far more polished performance to stay in the race in an increasingly tight competition.

Premier Reserves Minor
Our fearless leader, Liam, was away at a wedding this week, knocking back beers, and leaving the boys to slog out to Howick Pak. His only contribution to the game was last week when he lost the toss just before it started to bucket down, and that left us to be put into bat on a green seamer on day two.
I had faith in our openers until the second ball of the day, the ball of the century, saw Elliot's off stump cartwheeling. Then, a long-awaited return to the crease for Ash Abraham saw him hit five fours in a row while attracting a mid-pitch stare down from the opening bowler, who continued to chuck down a barrage of bouncers and stares.
With our situation looking grim at 44/5, in came Alex Pasco, recently promoted up the order from number 11. He and stand-in skipper Lewis Goodwin had to counter the opening spell.
With the cover boundary getting a work out from Alex Pasco's cover drives, Howick resorted back to the bouncer tactics. After a hard fight from Lewis and Alex, with a few good cut and pull shots, both fell in quick succession. Alex finished top run-scorer with a hard-fought 45, and with Lewis, a 70 run partnership. Howick's spinner then cleaned up the tail. Matt Browning was in such a generous mood, the nice guy that he is, kicked over his own stumps for them.
Defending a low total of 127, we knew we needed to strike early, and Kent Donnell gave us the hope we needed by getting through the gate of the opening batsman.
That slither of hope was soon gone with their batsmen making the pitch look flat and easy to bat on. Credit to the bowlers for not giving up and Andy Boys having a plum LBW turned down that even had the batsmen laughing as he almost walked. It just wasn't our day with the batsman going on to score 150.
However, a good fight from the bowling and fielding unit saw us pick up two bowling bonus points.
Special mention to Logan Clinch on burgling his first North Shore wicket and also his hard work and good banter over the last five weeks we wish him safe travels back to the UK.

Sportslink International Premier Reserve Women

After the completion of the first competition, the Premier Reserve teams have been mixed up again into a T20 and a 35 over competition.
We remained in the T20 competition, and there are some new teams in the grade now. Auckland University was our opposition last Saturday and it, unfortunately, ended our five-game winning streak.
Batting first we scored 111 for 4 against a consistent bowling attack. The biggest lesson here is learning how to score runs off the good ball – as they bowled more of them than we have faced previously.
So those of us who like the front foot shots tried coming out of the crease for a bit; others got right into their pull shots, and everyone was running the first run really hard to try and turn a one into two. The score kept ticking along, and there were some excellent partnerships – Rishika and Jo put on 37, and then Jo and Rhian put on 33. Jo top-scored with 40 n.o. at a strike rate of 121%.

Our bowling wasn’t consistent enough to put pressure on their batsmen who were a step up from other oppositions. Their No.3 was a classy player and ended up top-scoring with 56 n.o. They toyed with us a bit – hitting the bad balls for four which spread the field and then pushing for the singles. But we really didn’t help ourselves with 28 wides and no balls – so there’s another lesson there. They scored 115 in 15 overs for one wicket.

So an interesting game – good to see what the top teams are capable of and what areas we will need to improve on to perform better next time!

Ronnie Hira U13

Well done Boys!
Back row: Solomon Vermeer, Evan Moorby, Darcy Taylor, Sam Pita, Dominic Barker.
Front row: Alex Waldron, Jack Jones, Ollie Davies & Dominic Cook.

The Spirit of Cricket and teamwork won out in the Auckland Cricket U13 Club Of Origin plate final between North Shore and Howick-Pakuranga on Sunday 1st March.

Looking for their first-ever win against Howick-Pak, missing several usual players, NSCC Ronnie Hira had their ring-in prayers answered and fielded a team ranging from Y7 to Y10 lads.
Captain Sol Vermeer lost the toss, but Shore got their wish of fielding first on the scorching Lloyd Elsmore Park.
The team played to its strengths, making a solid start to the bowling, with Dominic Cook and Darcy Taylor skittling the stumps early on. A cracking catch from Taylor off Cook saw the home side three down and Shore chins up.
More well-taken catches followed from Taylor, Vermeer, Evan Moorby and two from wicketkeeper Dominic Barker, off balls from Alex Waldron, Jack Jones and Sam Pita.
Shore had Howick all out for 199 after 35 overs.
Ollie Davies and Alex Waldron got Shore off to a cracking chase in the heat, with a partnership close to 100, setting up a required run rate of around four an over. The following batsmen chipped away at the chase, with Taylor and Jones hitting double figures amid a run of catches from Howick, which dislodged three of the middle order.
Shore kept their heads though and eased to 201/6 after 30 overs.
The lads gave it their all and worked to their strengths; playing for each other and representing the club impeccabley.

Special mention 'Spirit of Cricket' award goes to Sam Pita, who sportingly walked after the umpire gave a caught behind not out. After raising his hand to confess he'd edged it, Pita left the field to applause, prompting post-match handshakes from Howick coaches and parents on both sides.
Well done boys, and well done Sam - you gave Shore's reputation for fair play and respectful cricket a boost.

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