United Cricket Club (Counties Manukau) Incorporated

Playing at their Patumahoe Domain homeground, Mauku won the toss & elected to bat first. United CC's opening bowlers provided the usual brilliant start that the team has got accustomed to now; Liam Jackson (9-2-28-0) being his miserly self, bowled an economical first spell of 5-2-8-0, while Nathan Palmer (9-0-43-4) proved to be a big headache for the Mauku top order, reducing them to 19/3 (7.4 overs) during his first spell of 6-0-21-3 in which he hit the top of the middle stump twice & was aided by Rajat Malhotra's reflex catching for the third scalp. Callum Jude (6-1-13-1) & Ronit Ghaiee (9-1-50-0) then bowled identical first spells of 4-1-10-0, while Rajat Malhotra's (8-0-37-0) first spell of 6-0-20-0 also did not allow the Mauku 4th-wicket-pair of Chris Innes (43) & Harley Jenkins (86 n.o.) to score freely with the total reading 61/3 (23 overs) at the breather.
Mauku stepped-up the scoring straight after the break, taking 7 runs off Michael Gordon's (2-0-10-0) second over & carried-on at a run-a-ball to take the score to 115/3 at the end of 32 overs. Callum Jude produced a beauty in the next over to trap Chris lbw to finally break the 96-run partnership. Having grown in confidence, Harley then put the foot on the pedal & got good support from Brock (20) & Shane (19) to take the score to 212/6 at the end of the allotted 45 overs, including 46 from the last 4 overs. With the exception of Callum Jude (2-0-3-1), all the United CC bowlers leaked runs in their last few overs - Liam (18 from 3), Nathan (22 from 3), Ronit (34 from 4) & Rajat (17 from 2), prompting match skipper Lee Ter Huurne to try Josh Anderson (1-0-11-0) & Jonathan Lawrence (1-0-12-0), both of whom proved wayward & ineffective. Among all this, Nathan accounted for Brock, uprooting his middle stump, while Rajat & Lee combined to run Shane out.

In reply, United CC kept ahead of Mauku's run-rate throughout their innings, despite the early loss of Rajat's (2) wicket at 9/1 in the second over. Josh (30) & Lee (21) added 59 runs for the second wicket off 10 overs before the accurate Kyle was introduced in the 13th over & bowled a couple of wicket-maidens, removing both Lee & Josh in the process, converting the score from 68/1 (12 overs) to 69/3 (15 overs). Deepak Bhakoo (5) & Jonathan Lawrence (21) put their heads down & started consuming the dangerous Kyle's (9-2-28-3) overs with caution & had added 25 for the fourth wicket when Deepak was given lbw to Chris Innes (9-0-27-1), with the total reading 94/4 (21.4 overs). This brought Ian Adamson (38) to the crease, who looked in good touch from the outset, despite losing partners Jonathan, Callum (2), Nathan (8) & Michael (2) at the other end. At 150/8 (35 overs), Liam joined Ian & the two started going for the runs, adding 21 runs from 13 balls before Ian played Harley (6-0-29-3) into the big hands of Chris. At 171/9 (37.3 overs), Ronit joined Liam with the team needing 42 to win off 45 balls. The two kept playing positively & conjured up the second-highest partnership of the innings, adding 29 from 41 balls before the more aggressive partner, Liam (17), holed one off Brock (8.3-0-27-1) to end the innings at 200, leaving Ronit (8 n.o.) unbeaten, with three balls to spare.

A narrow loss in the end, resulting in United CC dropping down from being joint-leaders to #3 on the ladder. Nathan Palmer (4/43) & Ian Adamson (38) were the outstanding performers for United, getting their personal best performances for the current season, as did Jonathan Lawrence (21), Liam Jackson (17) & Ronit Ghaiee (8 n.o.).