United Cricket Club (Counties Manukau) Incorporated

United CC Combined Training Team, led by Deepak Bhakoo and comprising players from all three senior grades beat Waiuku by a huge 90-run-margin in its first pre-season training match. 

The main purpose of the 25-overs-a-side match was to assess the capabilities of the new players as well as to help the players involved to ease their way into some cricketing action before the start of the season. As many as nine bowlers were used by United and they bowled with control & aggression, aided by some wonderful fielding, bundling out Waiuku for a meagre 57 in 25 overs. Terrence Brookes (3-2-6-0) and Bharat Oberoi (4-0-7-1) opened the bowling & were hard to score off, putting pressure on the batsmen. Before the batsmen could find a clue to their bowling, new bowlers were introduced in the form of Oliver Muir (2-0-3-1) and Kamalpreet Singh "KP" (3-0-7-0), followed by short spells by the other five bowlers. The consistent changes did not allow the Waiuku batsmen to settle down & they kept losing their wickets on a regular basis in an attempt to step up the scoring in the face of some accurate bowling & smart fielding that effected two run-outs. The pick of the bowlers was leg-spinner Devinder Singh (4-0-8-2), whose flight & variation bamboozled the Waiuku batsmen. The other bowlers used were Anuj Walia (3-0-6-1), Navpreet Saini (2-0-7-1), Manpreet Singh (2-1-3-1) and Ankur Bajaj (2-0-9-1).

After a slow start (27 for 2 from 9 overs) by the United openers Ankur Bajaj (7) and Navpreet Saini (6), Oliver Muir (8) and top-scorer Rajat Malhotra (28) stepped up the scoring by adding 21 runs in the next three overs before Oliver got run out. This was followed by a partnership of 20 in 2 overs between Rajat & Deepak Bhakoo (12), 32 in 5 overs between Deepak & Manpreet Singh (16) and an unbroken 34 in 4 overs between Priyankit Bangia (18 retired) and Kamalpreet Singh (14 retired). Anuj Walia (4 not out) and Terrence Brookes (4 not out) then played out the last couple of overs to take the score to 147 for 6 in 25 overs. The highlight of United's innings was provided by Rajat Malhotra, who smashed Mad Dog Matthew for 18 runs in 5 balls (including four boundaries) before holing out on the last ball of his over and by Kamalpreet Singh & Priyankit Bangia, who hit an effortless six apiece before retiring. 

The next practice match between the two teams will be played on Saturday, 13th October 2012 at Massey Park, Waiuku.