All three United CC teams recorded contrasting wins on Saturday, 6th November 2010, making it a "Three In Three" weekend for the club.
Playing at McLennan Park,
Buy Right Cars Senior A recorded another walk-in-the-park-win as Papakura batsmen failed to negotiate the menacing pace and guile of United CC's opening bowlers
Lawrence Minchinton (9-2-23-4) and
Anthony Brookes (8-1-24-3). The superb bowling from the duo was aided by some smart fielding in the form of 6 catches and 3 run-outs, two of them by
Thomas Raybould, who also had a catch to his name. Papakura folded for 72 from 22 overs, with only Tharindu Dassanayake (36) offering some resistance by scoring 50% of his team's score which also included a generous 25% contribution by United's bowlers in the form of 18 wides. Papakura's plight was evident from the fact that 9 of their batsmen scored a combined grand total of 7 runs, four of them failing to trouble the scorers.
The United openers, skipper
Harley Bayliss (40 n.o.) and his deputy
Josh Burgess (21) then gave Papakura a lesson in batting by all but overhauling Papakura's score by adding 71 for the first wicket before Josh's lapse in concentration saw him edge one straight into the keepers's hands. All that the next man in,
Lee Ter Huurne, had to do was to come in and watch Harley perform the last rites by hitting a boundary to put an end to Papakura's misery, knocking-off the runs in 15.2 overs.
For the
complete scorecard, click
here.
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J T Trees Senior B won by default against Pohutukawa Coast as the latter team pulled out on account of five of their players being involved in a car accident on the eve of the match.
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The club's third team,
Discount Panel & Paint Reserves, hosting Weymouth, fielded first against a team that included six players from their Senior A team that lost heavily to United last week. United's opening duo of golden baldies
Bruce Page &
Adam Dunn (5-1-20-2) were on the money straight away and had the visitors reeling at 30/4 from 10 overs, sharing the spoils equally. Young
Michael Chapman (5-0-32-2), brought in at first change, drilled another hole in Weymouth's sinking boat off his second ball when Isaac managed a fierce square cut, only to see the point-specialist
Deepak Bhakoo dive full length forward to pull-off an amazing catch to make it 31/5. The advent of Ash (56) at this stage provided some respectability to the score, as he used the lofted shot over the in-field to good effect, adding 47 for the 6th wicket with Sep (10) who was trapped by Michael Chapman in the 18th over. Riding his luck, Ash added another 37 runs for the 7th wicket with Jared (7) before the latter was yorked by Deepak Bhakoo, who succeeded in putting the brakes on the scoring with his figures reading 3-1-5-1 at that stage. Skipper
Tim Edmonds then brought back his ace bowler Bruce Page, who obliged by trapping Abhi (0) and David (0) before Deepak brought an end to Ash's adventurous innings, caught by Adam Dunn at wide mid-on, precisely as per the trap set for him. Weymouth folded up for 132 in 29.1 overs, with wrecker-in-chief Bruce finishing with 8-2-13-4 and Deepak with 4.1-1-17-2.
Chasing 133 to win, United's openers Bruce Page (26) and
Shane O'Neill (6) added 22 in 5 overs. The first ball of the 6th over from new bowler Isaac (8-1-42-2) saw a display of exemplary sportsmanship spirit by Shane as he walked after the faintest of faint edges to the keeper went un-noticed by not only the umpire, but even most of the fielders. From there on, every United batsman got a start but failed to make it big. Deepak Bhakoo (16) and Bruce added 34 for the 2nd wicket,
Mike Bongard (21) and
Rick Eastham (19) added 39 for the 4th wicket and Rick Eastham and Adam Dunn (12 not out) added 30 for the 5th wicket before new man Michael Chapman (4 not out) struck the winning boundary off the second ball he faced, with United finishing at 135/5 with 8.4 overs to spare.
For the
complete scorecard, click
here.