Thanks to a solid win against Rangiora High School on Tuesday 27 February, the Boys 1st XI Cricket team are through to the quarterfinals of the Gillette Cricket Cup.
This is the first time in over a decade or more that we have reached this stage of the competition. We are very proud to have a team of talented young men, who have all contributed in various ways throughout this competition. The Gillette Cup is a nationwide 1st XI Cricket tournament, that is played in a regional format in Term 1 before the regional winners play in a national tournament in December each year.
After placing second in the Gillette Prelim Tournament in the middle of February, the team had to win against Rangiora High School on Tuesday to ensure a spot in the main draw of the Christchurch Gillette Cup competition.
Losing the toss, we were sent into bat. The team eeked out a hard fought 199 in 49.1 overs. This was an excellent score on a soft pitch against some outstanding bowling from the Rangiora High team. Our players showed great patience and when there was an opportunity to get the ball away our boys took full advantage with the bulk of the scoring coming from boundaries. Top scorers with the bat were:
- Ollie Fifield 22;
- Jordan Sim 28;
- Thomas Vesty 44.
Our innings with the ball had the perfect start, a wicket off the first ball from a great catch from Bosilu Liyana Waduge at short cover. The opening bowling partnership of Thomas Vesty and Alex Guillemot had the Rangiora High top order hopping. Wickets were falling quickly and the team had Rangiora High 4-20 and then 6-60, with Jordan Sim and Alfie Bell getting in on the act. The middle order batsmen from Rangiora High put together two solid partnerships that put the pressure back on us. Some strategic bowling changes from our captain Ben Hooker and an excellent debut spell from Dilshan Soysa got the desired results, and we ended up winning the match by 42 runs in the 43 over.
- Thomas Vesty 3 wickets – 20 runs – 8 overs
- Alfie Bell 2 wickets – 25 runs – 7 overs
- Dilshan Soysa 3 wickets -15 runs – 5 overs
- Alex Guillemot 1 wicket – 21 runs – 9 overs
- Jordan Sim 1 wicket – 43 runs – 10 overs
These wickets takers will be thanking the tight effort in the field with seven of the ten wickets coming from catches:
- Jordan Sim 2
- Alfie Bell 2
- Yatharth Sharma 1
- Bosilu Liyana Waduge 2
Thank you to Mr Coster and Mr Green for their support of this team at both the full day games and the prelim tournament.
A big thank you to Kelvin Upjohn and Zac Tait from the North West Youth cricket club. Kelvin has been a great support to the team and Zac has umpired untold (well in excess of 200) overs as the team has navigated their Gillette Cup journey.
We wish the team all the very best as they prepare to play the Christchurch Boys High 1st XI in the upcoming quarterfinal (date to be confirmed).
The attached photos are from a interschool game against Cashmere High School, not the Rangiora High School game but are far too good not to share! Thanks to John Davidson for the photos.
