By Jim Allnatt
The Marie Raos Ray White Premier Men defeated a strong Cornwall side at Cornwall Park by 35 runs. Batting first, Howick Pakuranga totalled 238/6 in its 50 overs.
The innings was held together by Andrew Morrison who scored 63 and David Winn dominating the opposition bowlers with 101 scored off 97 balls.
Winn has a habit of scoring centuries at vital times and this was no exception. His partnership with Morrison was worth 85 runs.
Howick’s bowlers kept Cornwall under tight control and when the seventh wicket fell at 127 it was just a matter of time. Danru Ferns 3/36, Donovan Grobbelaar 2/30, Rudi Botadra 2/32 and Adam Jones 2/25 shared the wickets.
Howick hosted Ellerslie in the mid-week T 20 competition and it was only due to some outstanding bowling by Grobbelaar who took 4/14 and Rowan Naude with 2/14 supported by the rest of the attack that the Alpacas came out on top. After only managing to score 117 in its innings with only Morrison getting into the 20s, it looked as if the local side was facing defeat.
However Grobbelaar immediately put Ellerslie on the back foot dismissing two batsmen for ducks in the first over and after that the bowlers maintained consistent pressure. Ellerslie finished at 98/8, 19 runs short.
Another century was scored in the Women’s Premier match against Waitakere/University who were finalists in last season’s championship.
Howick batted first and scored 307/2 off its 50 overs. Rewa Arora opened with Radhika Patel in a 77 run stand with Arora scoring 44 and Patel went on to make 60. Natasha Van Tilburg came in at number 3 and really rattled the scoring rate along with an undefeated 124 runs off 97 balls including 15 fours and a six.
Holly Topp partnered her and she was 44* at the end of the innings.
Natasha’s century was the first for a Howick Pakuranga Premier Women’s side and the total was also the highest ever.
Waitakere was bowled out for 106 in just over 30 overs. Rae Allright with 3/14 off 14 overs was outstanding with Josie Penfold 2/35 and Alyssa Bowden 2/14 chipping in.
Currently the Howick women lie second in the table which signifies the improvement in the team performance this season.
