United Cricket Club (Counties Manukau) Incorporated

A Deepak Bhakoo-led United CC Invitational XI beat Waiuku CC XI by 28 runs in a pre-season friendly match played at Massey Park, Waiuku on Saturday, 15th October 2011.
 
Being put in to bat by Waiuku skipper Neil, United were provided a good start by openers Baha Gardner (23) & Ronit Ghaiee (12), who added 46 runs for the first wicket in 7.1 overs before Baha miscued an aerial shot in an attempt to further step-up the already healthy run-rate. Ronit (12) followed soon thereafter, which brought together Homi Mistry (47) & Neal McIntosh (56), who added 96 runs in 16 overs to take the score to 151/3 from 23.1 overs, when Neal got brilliantly caught by Coster at fine leg off Neil. Neal got his 56 runs from 47 balls with the help of 8 fours. Homi, who was timing the ball sweetly, got his 47 from 43 balls with the help of 3 fours and 2 sixes before retiring. The remaining batsmen committed a bit of hara-kiri in trying to take the score closer to 200 in the allotted 30 overs, but ended up at 185/8 in the face of some good bowling & a couple of run-outs, with only Rajat Malhotra (10) managing to get into double figures. For Waiuku, Marty & Rayno took two wickets each, while Matt & Neil took a wicket apiece.

Bharat Oberoi, who opened the bowling for United, bowled a tidy line & length at a good pace, not allowing the Waiuku openers to take-off. He removed both the openers in his 5-over spell, giving away just 17 runs, making Waiuku's chase even harder. Stumpy (42) & Blair (25) took the score from 31/2 in 6.3 overs to 70/3 in 14 overs before Bharat took a very well-judged high catch at the long on boundary off Satwinder Singh to end Blair's tenure at the crease. Stumpy & Rayno (18) then added 44 runs before Homi got rid of the former & followed it up with two consecutive caught-and-bowled dismissals in the same over. Daniel Gardner, bowling his gentle medium-pacers from the other end, clean bowled Rayno & grabbed a caught-and-bowled in his economical 3-over-spell, before Ronit Ghaiee & Deepak Bhakoo took a wicket apiece to restrict Waiuku to 157. United used as many as nine bowlers in the 30-over-game, with Anuj Walia, Priyankit Bangia & Rajat Malhotra being the other bowlers.