With Manukau leading the T20 table with 16 points & United CC Discount Panel & Paint Reserves in joint second with three other teams, the Marauders had to win their last round-robin game against Waiuku with a good margin to make it to the Final through a better Net Run Rate (NRR).
Waiuku won the toss & inserted United in first, who opened with AJ Stewart (1) & Deepak Bhakoo (38). With the score at only 2, AJ paid the price for wrong shot selection, getting caught off the first ball of the second over. This brought the in-form Oliver Muir "Ollie" (66no) to join Deepak at the crease & the pair gave an exhibition of some good running between the wickets, running sharp singles & converting singles into twos. The 9th over saw Deepak break the shackles, striking three boundaries off consecutive balls to lift the run rate. The pair batted steadily to take the score to 96 in the 15th over, when a misunderstanding ended the 94-run partnership through Deepak's run out. With more than 5 overs to go & 8 wickets in hand, the new batsman Adam Dunn (11no) proved to be perfect foil for the well set Ollie, as Adam kept taking the singles, putting the latter on strike & Ollie cut loose with some big hits. The third wicket pair added 44 runs without being separated, taking the score to 140 for 2 at the end of the 20 overs.
Harish Verma (Harry) opened the bowling for United with a good first over and had the batsmen guessing regularly, but it was the seasoned Adam Dunn bowling the second over who started the slide with some vintage stuff, getting two wickets in his first over. Harry effected a superb run-out in his next over through some sharp fielding & Adam castled another one in his next over to have Waiuku tottering at 8 for 4 from 4 overs. The two kept bowling accurately & menacingly for the rest of their respective spells, Harry finishing with 4-1-8-0 and Adam bagging his fourth "Dunn-deal" in his last over to finish with a dream T20 spell of 4-1-6-4. Michael Chapman snared a scalp in his first over, leaving Waiuku struggling at 15 for 6 after 8.4 overs. It seemed all doom & gloom for Waiuku at this stage, but the 7th wicket pair of Blair Johnson & Caine had other ideas & adopted an audacious approach, adding 54 in the next 5.2 overs to take the score to 69 from 14 overs, when Caine fell for 20 in AJ Stewart's second over. Blair (61) continued with the big hitting in the company of the remaining batsmen & developed a special liking for AJ Stewart (4-1-51-2) & Tony Wilson (3-0-29-0), but one of his wild swings managed to find an edge and the hard chance over his head eluded Ollie fielding at point. The batsmen committed the mistake of taking on Ollie's arm & in going for the second run, Blair got run-out to the Ollie-Maninder duo. At the end of their 20 overs, Waiuku finished at a previously unimaginable score of 134 for 9, losing the game by a margin of just 6 runs. At the end of 10 overs, they were 22 for 6, but in the next 10 overs, added 112 for the loss of 3 further wickets. Michael Chapman finished with figures of 4-0-26-1 & Prince Singh with 1-0-9-0.
SCORE SUMMARY:
United CC Discount Panel & Paint Reserves - 140 for 2 (20 overs)
Oliver Muir 66no, Deepak Bhakoo 38
Waiuku - 134 for 9 (20 overs)
Blair Johnson 61, Caine 20, Adam Dunn 4/6, AJ Stewart 2/51
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