United Cricket Club (Counties Manukau) Incorporated

Playing at War Memorial Park, United CC won the toss & elected to bat first. Lee Ter Huurne (1) departed early, with the total reading 10, but Rajat Malhotra (75 not out) & Josh Anderson (18) steadied the innings a bit & took the score to 42 before Josh edged a Brock Nash special to the wicket-keeper. From 1/42 to 5/50 in the space of 5 overs, the scorecard got transformed to a worriesome picture, but Jonathan Lawrence (17) & Rajat restored some sanity, taking the score to 84 before Jonathan played one on to his stumps. Rajat, looking solid as a rock, then changed gears & had useful partnerships of 19 with Callum Jude (2), 31 with Michael Gordon (12) and unbeaten 16 with Ronit Ghaiee (5 not out) taking the total to a respectable 150 for 8 from the allotted 45 overs.

Having got 150 runs to defend, the United CC bowlers once again displayed their menacing capabilities by restricting Manukau to 2/22 from the first 10 overs. Liam Jackson (8.2-3-16-3) bowled three maidens in his first spell of 5-3-4-0, while Callum Jude (5-1-9-2), bowling at first-change, got a double breakthrough in his third over (10th of the innings). The next nine overs conceded 35 runs, with Nathan Barthow (25) & Brock Nash (11) threatening to mount a serious challenge, but in the 20th over, Rajat Malhotra (7-0-25-4) got through Brock's defence, clean bowling him with a ripper of a ball. The score at the drinks interval was 3/67 from 22 overs. In the first over after resumption of play, Michael Gordon managed to get Nathan to play an aerial square-cut to point, where skipper Deepak Bhakoo gladly accepted the offering. Thereafter, Rajat got into his own & got two wickets off the last two balls of his fifth over & being on a hat-trick, bowled a wide first-up in his next over, following it up with a wicket off the next ball, thereby grabbing a "technical hat trick". Liam Jackson helped mop-up the tail in his final spell, with all of Manukau's batsmen back in the hut for a total of 90 off 29.2 overs. Converting 2/58 to 90 all out, the United CC bowlers, aided by their ever-so-reliable fielders, exhibited the resultant logical outcome if they are not given the respect they warrant, winning the match by a big margin of 60 runs & maintaining their 100% success rate.

GO UNITED !!!