We go to Palmerston North during Easter weekend to try and qualify as the Central Districts qualifier and play in the national Gillette Cup tournament.
1st Qualifying game:
- NBHS vs Lindisfarne College played at Lindisfarne on the 27th of February 2016
- Lindisfarne won the toss and elected to bowl.
We started off in early trouble, losing 2 quick wickets for 8 runs. 9 overs later, another wicket fell and we were 41/3. Adam Winter and Flynn Allen steadied the ship to see us through to 27 overs. The bottom order hung around and we ended up posting 148/7 after the 50 overs. Flynn Allen scored 55 and Mitchell Williams-North 25*.
We came out of the sheds knowing we didn’t post as much as we could have. Opening bowlers, Mako Thompson and Todd Watson came out firing with a pumped up Napier Boys’ field. Todd struck early in the 4th over, caught by the safe hands of Ben Taylor in the slip cordon. Mako got another the next over with a caught and bowled and all of a sudden Napier Boys’ was on top. Lindisfarne lost wicket after wicket, with their top run scorer getting 20 batting at number 9. Despite a Lindisfarne bottom order renaissance, they were bowled all out for 107 after 31.4 overs and Napier Boys’ won by 41 runs. Mako Thompson getting 4-34 off 10, Todd Watson 3-27 off 7.4 and Robbie Brigham 3-31 off 10.
2nd Qualifying game:
- NBHS vs Hastings Boys’ High School played at HBHS on the 8th of March 2016
- NBHS won the toss and elected to bowl.
We got our first wicket in the 10th over when Todd Watson broke the opening partnership. 4 overs later, Robbie Brigham got the crucial wicket of skipper Bayley Wiggins with an inswinging ball collecting his off stump. Hastings slowly ticked away through the mid stages of their innings. Towards the end of their innings they started to up the run rate. They eventually got bowled all out, failing to complete the 50 overs. They ended up on 151, Daniel Sharplin the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets for 19 runs after 6.2 overs. Todd Watson also took 3 wickets for 19 runs after 8 overs.
We came out to bat hoping for a good start but all hope was extinguished when both openers were dismissed with 7 overs. Number 3 and 4 didn’t hang around as Napier Boys were in serious trouble being 4-25. Out came Daniel Sharplin and Adam Winter putting on a brilliant partnership of 82 runs and bringing us back into the game. Winter fell after a good knock and in came Ben Taylor. Another crucial partnership between Taylor and Sharplin put Napier Boys in the drivers seat. Unfortunately Sharplin fell just before the winning runs and his half century. In came Nick Hutton and he batted through with Ben Taylor until Napier Boys hit the winning runs after 43.3 overs and winning by 4 wickets. Outstanding performance from Daniel Sharplin who got 46 runs on top of his 4 wicket haul. Ben Taylor also had a disciplined innings and he got 26* for his efforts. Adam Winter also had an important batting performance as he racked up 20 runs.
