United Cricket Club (Counties Manukau) Incorporated

Waiuku CC won the toss & put United CC in to bat. The home team, after a cautious start, were soon in trouble at 19/2 after 11 overs in the wake of some splendid bowling, losing Rajat Malhotra(0) & Josh Anderson(1) cheaply. Opener Jonathan Lawrence(20) & co-skipper Lee Ter Huurne(39) took the score to 44 in the 20th over when C Maddern got one through Jonathan's defences. First-change bowler M Aspin (9-3-10-2) put brakes on the scoring with some remarkable controlled bowling. In trying to break the shackles, skipper Deepak Bhakoo(1) skied one off him to deep mid-on & triggered a procession which saw them collapse further to 91/7. Running out of partners, Lee started using the long handle hitting J Van der Hulst (6-1-24-3) for a sweetly-timed six before being bowled a couple of deliveries later by the same bowler, making it 111/8. The highlight of the United innings thereafter was the golden duck earned by Liam Jackson, promoted from #11 to #10 & the innings folded at the same score when Michael Gordon(3) was foxed by S Hughes, Ronit Ghaiee remaining unbeaten without scoring.
Defending a low score, United needed some quick wickets & their opening bowlers, Liam Jackson (8-1-21-1) & Nathan Palmer (9-3-13-1), obliged with a wicket apiece in their respective first overs. Liam pulled a muscle in the 8th over (16/2) & the introduction of Callum Jude (3.4-0-26-0) opened the floodgates as he conceded 17 runs in his first two overs including six wides & a no-ball. Rajat Malhotra (8-0-25-2) got rid of the well-settled D Windsor(42) in his second over aided by an extremely well-judged high catch by Ronit at long-on, leaving the score at 74/4 from 20 overs. Whatever hopes United had of a victory at that stage were dashed by some uncharacteristic wayward bowling by its bowlers thereafter, which can be summarised by the fact that they bowled 31 wides (Liam 5, Nathan 4, Callum 8, Rajat 7, Josh Anderson 6 from two overs & Michael Gordon 1 from one over) & 6 no-balls (Liam 2, Callum 3 & Rajat 1). The only bowler who did not concede any extras was Ronit Ghaiee, but the normally economic bowler conceded 16 from the bat off his two overs. The pick of the bowlers, though, was Nathan Palmer who bowled three maidens & gave only 9 runs off the bat from his 9 overs & suffered due to a couple of dropped catches, as did Rajat. Waiuku reached their target with six wickets to spare in 33.4 overs, handing United their only loss of the season. Nevertheless, United CC Reserve One are still at the top of the table along with Mauku, who also suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of Weymouth today.