Wet first round helps two Taranaki premier cricket sides jump ahead

New Plymouth & Marist United opening batter Michael Blanks works the ball away to leg on his way to a well-compiled 79 as his team got the win over FDMC on Saturday.

Marist and Inglewood have earned themselves a leg up in Expert Turf Taranaki premier 50-over cricket after a rain affected first round over the weekend.
Both sides made bonus point victories in reduced overs matches meaning they have jumped to the top of the leaderboard, with the four sides who didn’t play sharing two points each.
Nag N’ Noggin NPMU leads on the board early courtesy of net run rate, with Civil Quarries Inglewood joining them on 5 points. Their two opponents, Whitaker Civil FDMC and Metcalfe Real Estate Hawera United are at the bottom without points, while all remaining teams picked up two points for their abandoned matches.
In New Plymouth, players waited at FDMC until close to 3pm before a 25-over a side match got underway.
Winning the toss and choosing to bat first Marist’s Michael Blanks made the most of an early life and went on to hit 79 at a crisp clip. His anchoring performance earned him the first Expert Turf Performance of the Round trophy, and meant his teammates could chip in around him, most notably fellow opener Robson Chapman who made 29, and set a testing target of 170 for the College side.
FDMC’s best bowler was Jack Kelsen who picked up a wicket and conceded just 26 runs off his five overs.
The FDMC chase was held together by debutant player/coach Aaron Zame, who opened the innings and made 48, while fellow player/coach Tinashe Chimbambo made 21 and Asher Ryan chipped in with 18.
But the runs came too slowly and at the 10th over FDMC was already facing mounting run rate pressure at 2/21. In the end they fell 53 runs short, all out for 116, but there were plenty of encouraging signs for the schoolboys.
In Hawera, slightly better weather conditions meant play got underway not long after the scheduled start time, in a 46-over a side match.
Sent into bat, Inglewood managed to score consistently throughout to reach 9/177. The side would have been please with the efforts of club debutant Vatsal Gajjar, who top scored with 42, while Sam Darth (30) and Brent Stevens (32) also made solid contributions. Shaun Fowler proved a handful with the ball for Hawera, picking up 3/31 off nine overs.
The home side made a promising start to their chase, but got the wobbles when opener Harrison Fevre (29 retired n/o) had to head off. Michael September batted well for 29 on debut but was unable to find anyone to build a partnership with and Hawera finished on 9/114 in 32 overs to give Inglewood a comfortable win. Riley Biesiek, another debutant, and Tyla Judson each picked up two wickets for the visitors.
This weekend the action is all in New Plymouth, with four games around the city on Saturday. Riddick Construction NPBHS hosts Stratford, Merit RV NPOB will hope to get their title defence underway against Inglewood, Hawera travel to Marist and Stumble Inn Woodleigh will host FDMC.

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