United Cricket Club (Counties Manukau) Incorporated

Playing at Massey Park, Waiuku, United CC won the toss & batted first, getting off to a good start with the openers Lee Ter Huurne (16) & Josh Anderson (50) adding 55 runs for the first wicket at run-a-ball. Lee departed at the start of the 10th over & Rajat Malhotra (0) departed on the last ball of the same over bowled by P Richardson (6-0-21-2). Josh & new batsman Jonathan Lawrence (39) took the score to 95 at the end of 18 overs, before the fall of Josh's wicket, which triggered a collapse from 95/2 to 103/6, losing Christopher Farnell (1), Ian Adamson (0) & Deepak Bhakoo (0) cheaply to C Aspin who bowled three consecutive wicket-maidens in his spell of 9-3-20-3. Jonathan, then, found an able partner in the form of Nathan Palmer (22) & the two took the score to 144, when Jonathan got out to an extremely amazing catch at the boundary by Dion Windsor, converting what seemed like a definite sixer to a wicket. Callum Jude (23 not out) arrived at the crease at this stage & in Nathan's company, took the score to 180 in the 42nd over, when Nathan departed, trying to accelerate the scoring. New man Liam Jackson's obvious mantra was to have a massive swing at every ball & he delighted his team-mates when he finally connected one (after missing a few) & sent it soaring over the boundary. He remained unbeaten on 9 in his team's 204/8 from 45 overs.

United's defence started in the right direction, with the opening bowlers Nathan Palmer (9-1-35-3) & Liam Jackson (9-1-43-3) reducing Waiuku to 11/2 after 4 overs & then 31/3 after 7.2 overs, Rajat Malhotra snaring two catches & Callum Jude one. It was then that the Waiuku pair of Moe (50) & R Van Der Merwe (27) got together & added 72 runs for the fourth wicket from 12 overs with a perfect blend of caution & aggression, before Callum Jude (9-1-46-2) removed both of them in successive overs & Nathan Palmer returned to remove C Aspin (11) & M Daniel (0) while Liam Jackson got rid of P Richardson (5) to reduce Waiuku to 150/8 from 29 overs. With 16 overs to go, Waiuku still needed 55 runs & United needed just two wickets to win the match. From here on, although the bowlers in operation bowled pretty tight second spells (Rajat Malhotra 6-0-17-0, Liam Jackson 4-1-13-0 & Ronit Ghaiee 3-0-12-0), they were unable to break the ninth-wicket partnership between A Meikel (37 not out) & Jarred Greenwood (24 not out), who added an unbeaten 55 in a very calm & clinical manner to take their team across with just seven balls to spare. Young Christopher Farnell (2-0-11-0) playing his first game for Reserve One, came pretty close to breaking the partnership in the 42nd over, but could not latch on to the hard, stinging return catch.