Metalfold Industries Bloomfield Premier 3 vs Feilding CC & Old Boys CC
With our NRR the key issue for our finals ambitions heading into these next rounds the focus was on winning big against Feilding and Old Boys. Unfortunately, Feilding decided to piss in our cereal late Friday afternoon and default, effectively ending our chances of making the final. The 10 points their team should lose for their late defaults is only solace both us and ManFox can take from the unfortunate situation but that will have no effect on Feilding or the competition ladder. There have been more defaults this season than any I can remember in recent history and hopefully it’s something the clubs can work with Manawatu Cricket to avoid in the future.
As it turned out the weather was our unlikely saviour, cancelling the first round of the day and turning that 0% chance of making the final into, let’s say a 10? What we needed was fast runs maybe, I dunno. It’s complicated.
Anyway, Old Boys turned up and won the toss convincingly. In fact Joe absolutely wiped the floor with Trout coming out with a strong heads call that paid dividends. He chose to have a bat and Trout was forced to walk back to our tents defeated and disgraced.
Ben opened the bowling for us and got off to a great start bowling 2 overs with 2 wickets for 1 run. If you were new to the team you could be forgiven for thinking he had just bowled the 2 worst overs in cricket history with some of the comments flying around. Perhaps it was his team mates lack of appreciation for the fine artistry he was producing with the ball that caused his 3rd over to be a tad expensive and then brutally pulled from the attack. A run-out by Trout in that over put Old Boys in big trouble at 3 for 4. Gary was busy plucking away at the other end with boring, consistent, unplayable, outswing bowling. The only chance being dropped by Ben at 2nd slip as he, somehow, landed on his head as only he can. Trout and Kurtis took up the bowling duties and quickly found out that it wasn’t all that easy as the Old Boys batsmen consistently found the boundary. In Trout’s case, 3 dropped catches didn’t help his cause and the batsmens refusal to get bogged down by tight bowling made things difficult.
Trout getting hit.
The score started to tick along nicely for Old Boys with a great partnership between Fill-in and Fill-in really starting to frustrate us. Eventually it was Trout that made the breakthrough with David Hamo taking a sweet catch on the boundary. It was then time for come-back King Rowan Drinnan to make his P3 bowling debut. Running into bowl he cast all sorts of bad magic with his arm indicating he was going to spin the ball. His first ball was hit for what by all money looked like a 6 until Bishtopher Chrishop put a hand up and dragged it in, removing Fill-In for a well hit 48. His next ball removed the new batsman, Joe Waaka, LBW for a duck leaving Ronald “Bad Magic” Weasley on a hattrick.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be but the bowling remained tight and he finished with awesome stats of 3 for 20 off 4. A strange run-out in the final over left Old Boys finishing at 121/8.
Rowan "Bad Magic" Drinnan
With the simple plan being “runs, fast. Bishtopher was removed from his opening spot and replaced by George. The change seemed to have great effect and the boundaries came fast. The pressure was certainly on as any over that went for less than 10 was met with grumbles around the camp. That didn’t happen too often as George and Jase plundered their way to 44 before George was out bowled by Liam Watson for 15 off 10. Randy Liuvaie replaced him and wasted no time in joining Jase in his plundering ways. Jase was next to go, caught and bowled by Joe Waaka at 64 for 2. Kurt came in and hit a steady 22 of 18 before going out caught. Bishtopher who, had in true Bloomfield fashion received just the right amount of grief for his average strike rate decided to unleash some fury on the Old Boys bowlers. With only 12 runs needed for victory he hit 13 of 4 deliveries giving him the strike rate he has dreamed about for so many nights, a glorious 325. Randy finished on a sweet 36* off 19 and Bloomfield ran out winners in the 11th over.
That win looks to have gotten us close to Maw Haws NRR but a big win over the unbeaten Freyberg Stallions next weekend would be required to give us any chance at another finals appearance.
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