Rep side struggles at Chapple Cup

PETER JONES

The Marlborough senior men’s cricket side struggled to make an impact in a hastily-reorganised Chapple Cup tournament at the weekend.

Cyclone Gabrielle had a major impact on this year’s event. Originally scheduled for a threeday, 50-over tournament, a major reshuffle was required after Hawke’s Bay were forced to withdraw at late notice due to the impact of the storm, and the original Palmerston North venue was deemed unfit for play.

Central Districts cricket and the eight participating regions agreed to reconfigure the event as a two-day, Twenty20 tournament, staged in Levin, with one pool of four teams and one of three and cross-over finals on Sunday.

Marlborough ended up in the pool of four, alongside Horowhenua Kapiti, Manawatu and Wairarapa. Nelson, Taranaki and Whanganui were in the other pool.

First up, Marlborough met hosts Horowhenua Kapiti, and were sent into bat.

Marlborough managed to put a competitive total of 137-6 on the board after their 20 overs, opener Tom Leonard top-scoring with 29 from 27, helped by Matt Stretch with 22 from 21. Jamie McVittie’s unbeaten 24 from 17 balls provided a late boost.

A tight fielding and bowling effort from Marlborough then restricted Horowhenua Kapiti to 123-8 when the final ball was bowled, leaving Marlborough winners by 14 runs.

Star with the ball was spinner Tom Sutherland, who bagged 5-19, including the prized wicket of former Marlborough player Prabodha Arthavidu, who top scored for the hosts with 35. Nick Weaver, Jaden Adams and Sam Boyce picked up a wicket apiece.

Later on Saturday, Marlborough took on a powerful Manawatu outfit and came off second best, beaten by eight wickets.

Marlborough batted first against a first-class attack and struggled their way to 61 in 19.1 overs, extras top scoring with 14, followed by Stretch with 11.

It took only eight overs for Manawatu to knock off the runs, for the loss of just two wickets, one each to Joel Pannell and Adams. On Sunday morning, Marlborough faced up to Wairarapa and came away with another loss, beaten this time by five wickets. Batting first Marlborough scored just 117-7 from their 20 overs. Stretch, 37 from 33, Luke Pannell, 34 not out from 44, and Sutherland, 17 from 13, provided the bulk of the runs, but their total was too low to fully test the Wairarapa batters.

Despite some outstanding bowl- ing from Weaver, who grabbed 3-10 from four, Wairarapa coasted to victory with five balls to spare, ending at 122-5. In their final encounter, Marlborough met old rivals Nelson in a battle for fifth and sixth position. Batting first Marlborough reached 142-7 from their 20 over complement, a superb 72 from just 36 balls from Nick Weaver highlighting their batting. He and Luke Pannell, 32 not out from 32 balls, put together a 94run partnership to rescue Marl- borough’s innings, which was teetering at 5-48.

Nelson managed to knock off the required target in the 18th over, ending at 143-5, to win by five wickets. Joel Pannell snared two wickets, Adams, Weaver and Boyce one apiece.

Marlborough head coach Jarrod Englefield was full of praise for the tournament organisers who he said did “an amazing job” to get the event underway on good wickets despite the obvious weather-related issues.