St Albans overcomes Woolston on last ball

Press, 10 November 1986, Page 22

St Albans overcomes Woolston on last ball

St Albans beat Woolston Working Men’s Club from the final delivery of their match at Hagley Oval, the most exhilarating of four outright victories gained when the third round of the Canterbury cricket championship was completed on Saturday.

The last over contained plenty of drama as the St Albans batsmen, Grant Lucas and Ben Harris, scampered between the wickets for one more than the 10 runs required, a dropped catch adding to the excitement.

At Elmwood Park, Old Collegians achieved its target in the second-to-last over, but its opponent,- High School Old Boys, continues to hold a slender advantage in the Trust Bank Trophy competition.

There were batting collapses by Marist and EastShirley, giving their respective rivals, Lancaster Park and Riccarton, the results they had sought. However, Riccarton conceded first innnings points after a lowerorder recession of its own. ’

Only at Burnside, where the home team won on the first innings, did the match not come to an outright conclusion.

Points: Old Boys 22, St Albans 19, Lancaster Park 18, Riccarton 18, Old Collegians 16, Sydenham 15, East-Shirley 8, Burnside-West 7, Marist 6, Woolston W.M.C. 6.

Although Woolston eventually lost, its Sri Lankan allrounder, Ajit Johnpillai, provided the individual highlight with the season’s first senior century — and the club’s first three-figure total in the top grade.

The overnight batsmen prospered at Hagley. On No. 1 pitch Geoff Smith and Mark Priest extended their partnership to 183 runs, and Smith added a second half-century later; on No. 3, Lindsay Thom and Peter Stubbings also had profitable days. Rod Latham (Lancaster Park) and Graham Bean (Old Collegians) had sizeable, unbeaten innings. Kevin Scott, of Riccarton, was the only bowler to claim six wickets in an innings; Gary Lund (East-Shirley), Craig Thiele (Lancaster Park), Andrew Hintz (Bum-side-West), Ken Julian (Sydenham) and Chris Flanagan (Old Boys) finished with five. Results.— Woolston W.M.C. 151 and 260/7 dec. lost to St Albans 234/6 dec. and 179/7 by 'three wickets. East-Shirley 211 and 60 lost to Riccarton 204 and 68/ ,1 by nine wickets. • Marist 196 and 89 lost to Lancaster Park 199/7 dec. and 89/4 by six wickets. Old Boys 151 and 159/5 ’dec. lost to Old Collegians 102 and 212/5 by five wickets.

Burnside-West 243/7 dec. and 128/5 dec. beat Sydenham 149/9 dec. and 150/4 on the first innings.

MATCH OF THE DAY When Woolston W.M.C. lost its sixth second-innings wicket just 42 runs ahead of St Albans at Hagley 1, an easy and early success for the home side appeared merely a formality. But such conjecture did not allow for the contribution about to be made by Ajit Johnpillai, a Sri Lankan who had arrived at Woolston via Bermuda and, ironically, the St Albans pre-season practice nets.

Johnpillai was by no means cowered by the situation. He was immediately into his stride, hitting with considerable power and accuracy. Most of the seven boundaries in his first half-century were plundered through the leg side and St Albans soon shelved thoughts of “feeding” his favourite hooks and pulls to a five-man fielding formation.

When the bowlers changed their angle of attack, so did Johnpillai. He was now peppering the off-side, and his confidence served to bring the best out of Les Robson, his eager helper in a partnership worth 135 runs in 95 minutes.

Johnpillai offered his only chance, a tough one, on 98, and had double cause for celebration when the frustrated fieldsmen rose to concede four overthrows. As the Woolston declaration neared, Johnpillai hammered five more boundaries after tea in 10 minutes; his 126 came from 122 balls in 127 minutes, including 19 fours, one five and a booming six at Andrew Nuttall’s expense.

The Woolston middle-order man had raised the excitement level considerably, and the game continued to bubble as St Albans set off in pursuit of 178 runs in 39 minutes and 20 overs — a requirement of about six runs from each over.

Geoff Smith looked to be the best hope, and he reached his second half-cen-tury of the match before becoming the third run-out victim of the innings. Smith was the seventh out, at 116, and the Woolston captain, Anup Nathu, was justified in

having three slips and a gully as St Albans fell behind the run-rate. For a time Ben Harris continued to hit out, and Grant Lucas concentrated on defence. When 58 runs were needed from five overs, Lucas joined Harris in attacking the previously parsimonious Ken Taylor. In an over liberally laced with no-balls, the deficit dropped by 17.

Seven were taken from Johnpillai’s second over, 13 wrenched from Taylor, 11 off Alan Gambles, and 10 were needed when Taylor began the final over. Lucas smacked four consecutive twos, then offered a straightforward catch to Nathu in the covers. The ball fell from Nathu’s hands as the batsmen scampered a single. Adding insult to injury, Harris spooned the winning run well over the head of the Woolston captain. UNSEASONABLE It must have seemed like a summer storm to the Marist players at Ensors Road — there was thunder in Rod Latham’s bat and lightning in Craig Thiele’s bowling. Out in such weather, Marist lost by six wickets.

Needing 100 to obtain first innings points,, with six wickets standing, Park had an early set-back when Mark Hastings claimed two wickets with his lively medium-paced bowling. Latham, however, found his very best form, and there was nothing Marist could do about that. Hitting straight drives with tremendous power, Latham had three sixes in his score of 66 not out in 95 minutes, and he had plenty of other strokes of rare quality. Marist collapsed abruptly, with Thiele being dominant and Latham a full accessory. Thiele had four overs before lunch and in them took three for none. After the interval he bowled 14 consecutive overs. He found the seam regularly and obtained useful lift.

Hastings, for an hour, fought it out with Dave Grealish; Gary MacDonald made 28 in 25 minutes with some boisterous, some exquisite shots, but the target for the Park was far too small.

Again Hastings took two quick wickets, but this time David Dempsey came to the rescue. His footwork against the slow bowlers was exemplary, and he drove the faster ones equally satisfactorily. The fielding of both sides was first class. Dempsey took a slip catch which was hardly a chance to dismiss Paul Bateman, Kim Perera took an astonishing gully catch to dismiss Latham in the second innings and John Radovonich gave an outstanding display of wicket-keeping and batting. He hurled himself far to the leg side to catch Ross Cunningham and spiralled 40 metres from the wicket to catch Greg Curtain off a shot which seemed to defy the laws of Isaac Newton. EARLY FINISH

East-Shirley and Riccarton

had completed their match on Hagley 3 by 4.19 p.m., an outcome that no-one could have envisaged from proceedings early in the day.

The manner in which Peter Stubbings and Danny Halligan thoroughly dominated the East bowlers in the sixthwicket stand worth 61 runs in 32 minutes suggested Riccarton would comfortably take first innings points, leaving East the task of setting a target during the afternoon.

But when the East wicketkeeper, Mark Barrett, dived far to his right to catch Halligan, the whole character of the game changed. The batsmen were suddenly in bonds, a’ total of 14 wickets falling for just 69 runs as Riccarton conceded a sevenrun advantage and then struck back to humble its opponent. When all the flailing and the wailing of the East batsmen was done, Riccarton had the simple need of just 68 runs for victory. Lindsay Thorn, who had completed a half-century in the morning, was adamant that another collapse would not occur, and in Tim Murdoch he found a partner to propel Riccarton through to its goal. There was no logical reason why the bowlers of both sides should run roughshod over their rivals. Certainly, the conditions were no different than those in which Stubbings and Halligan had prospered. Stubbings was severe on any short deliveries, fluent on the drive, and he would surely have seen East headed off had someone managed to remain at the other end.

Gary Lund captured four of the last five Riccarton wickets, all in 15 balls for the concession of two runs to achieve his first senior fivewicket haul. He would have been on a hat-trick with his opening delivery in the second innings, but had a prior commitment in an examination room. If Lund had intentions of returning to bat down the order, then his team-mates did not provide him with that opportunity. One short, they were vulnerable to the whole-

hearted efforts of Kevin Scott, and were tied down by Scott’s assistants, Denis Aberhart and Halligan, who between them allowed only a dozen runs from 98 balls.

Although East did not lose a wicket until the total was 22, the demise was quick. East’s opening pair was still together at lunch; by tea Riccarton required only another 28 runs to clinch outright points. TARGET ACHIEVED

Old Collegiahs charged to an exciting win at Elmwood Park, with Bill Lawrence hitting 11 off the second-to-last High School Old Boys over.

The foundation for the victory, however, was laid by Graham Bean who, in another long innings, batted sensibly and well, gradually increasing the tempo to keep his side in the race.

Collegians needed 118 when the final 20 overs began and the target of a run a ball remained, with minor variations, the same throughout the last 80 minutes. The side had a setback in the twelfth over when Paul McEwan was out, and a further one three runs later with the loss of Roger Fuller, but Bean and Lawrence took control in a partnership of 48.

Earlier Bean and Keith Gardner had scored 78 for the third wicket and, although at times the scoring faltered, the keeping intact of wickets was a major contribution to. the results.

Dayle Hadlee and Chris Flanagan did most of the bowling and both performed with good control. The highlight of the innings for Old Boys was the throw of Henry Richards, who hurled the ball from the deep outfield to break the wicket of Gardner.

The Old Boys’ declaration was sporting, 209 being needed in 118 minutes plus 20 overs. The pitch was an improvement on that of the previous week, but the ball occasionally turned sharply and flew from a length. The use of the heavy roller before Collegians batted ironed out much of the venom and the Old Boys bowlers did not get the help anticipated. There was some good batting in the Old Boys’ second innings. Blair Hartland continued to look very much a player of the future, timing his shots well, and Cran Bull showed a welcome return to form. He was. instrumental in giving his side the opportunity of declaring when, with Flanagan, he put on 52 in less than even time. OUT OF REACH

During the past several seasons, Sydenham has occasionally made a good tilt at scoring in excess of 200 in a session to win a match, but the task it was set at Burnside’ Park on Saturday — 223 in an hour and 20 overs — was always too difficult.

When the side had reached 58 for one after the first hour, still needing 165 from 20 overs, the writing was on the wall although Wayne Hig-

gins, Darren Murray, Ken Julian and Kevin Moore provided entertainment with some lusty hitting. The four shared eight sixes among them.

Higgins and Murray put on 73 in 52 minutes and just when it seemed that Sydenham would be content to merely see out the final overs, Julian and Moore combined in a rollicking partnership of 33 in 19 minutes. In spite of such zestful hitting in the latter stages, Sydenham was left well short of the target and it seemed a little ironical that the side was set an asking rate of six an over after Burnside-West; which had held the whiphand in the match, managed just under two-and-a-half in its second innings.

Darin Cusack batted with style in scoring 35 in an hour with five boundaries, while his opening partner, John Preston, faced 120 balls in compiling a neat 44. Ken Julian, with all five wickets to fall, proved once again the dangers inherent in playing back to even his shorter deliveries. Paul Bulman produced some very fine overs, but had no luck.

In the morning, Sydenham was quickly out of contention on the first innings when Darren Murray was out with no addition to the score. Three further wickets fell for the addition of 14 runs. Ash Hart’s 33 from 52 balls provided a measure of substance to the innings but then, with nine wickets down and the score only just in advance of the follow-on mark, Bob Carter was forced to look at the possible bigger prize later in the day.

Andrew Hintz, in a fine display of lively seam bowl-

ing, was the chief destroyer of Sydenham’s innings. Hintz struck up a telling double act with the youthfull Lee Germon behind the stumps and there was another good catching a little further from the wicket, notably by Andrew Sherwood and Grant Dickson.