Auckland’s Westlake College and Christchurch’s Boys’ High School will play-off for the 2007 Gillette Cup final after winning their respective pools.
Westlake won all three of their pool games, while Christchurch qualified after losing their opening game and clinching victory over Tauranga Boys’ College.
Completing their group stage against Kavanagh College, Westlake BHS won the toss and batted.
Openers Josh Tasman-Jones and Ellery Williams put on 76 for the first wicket, with Tony Manning later compiling a solid 89 as the team posted 307/7. Left-arm spinner, Nick Beard recorded outstanding figures of 1/18 off 10 overs.
In reply, Kavanagh started steadily and looked to have pegged back Westlake, but fell nine runs short.
Christchurch took out Pool B with a five-wicket win over Tauranga Boys’ College, their nearest rival for a final place.
Tauranga Boys’ College won the toss and batted. They found the going tough against a very accurate Christchurch BHS bowling attack backed by committed fielding.
Captain Kane Williamson, with an outstanding century, provided the backbone of their innings of 215/9. Three run outs and two wickets each by Alex Rowe and Matt Latham accounted for most of the wickets.
In reply, Christchurch BHS were aggressive in their pursuit of the total scoring the required runs in 39 overs. Sam Noster, Cameron Bellis, Alex Ross, Corey Anderson and Tyler Bleyendaal all made useful contributions.
Wellington College entered their game against Wanganui Collegiate with hopes of a final place, but missed out despite a 106-run win.
Wellington batted first, but Wanganui Collegiate broke through early and looked to have things under control at the 12 over mark, with three down.
But Reece Cargill and Harry Boam shared a record stand of 160 to set the team on their way to 279/8.
In reply Wanganui batted steadily through the innings, but were never really in the hunt and ended up 106 runs short with three wickets in hand.
Palmerston North BHS will play off for third place against Tauranga after a 769-run win over Hamilton BHS.
PNBHS opener Dane Cleaver and captain George Worker combined in a rapid fire tournament record 147-run, second -wicket stand.
Cleaver was unlucky to be dismissed for 97 but State Central Stags and New Zealand Under-19 representative Worker made a fluent 111 in a total of 277/6.
Hamilton BHS were steady in their response but were always behind the run rate, star batsman Anarug Verma top scoring with an unbeaten 66.
POOL A
Westlake Boys’ High School v Kavanagh College
Westlake BHS: 307/7 [Josh Tasman-Jones 31, Ellery Williams 58, Tony Manning 89; Nick Beard 1/10, Daniel Willemsen 3/72]
Kavanagh College: 298/8 [Daryl Caldwell 41, Michael Bracewell 45, Nick Beard 51, Nick Eathorne 42, Daniel Willemsen 63; Alex MacDuff 3/45]
Result: Win to Westlake BHS by 9 runs
Palmerston North Boys’ High School v Hamilton Boys’ High School
PNBHS: 277/6 [George Worker 111, Dane Cleaver 97, Sam Whitehead 22; Steven Cullingworth 3/65, Ben McPhee 2/52]
Hamilton BHS: 198 [Steven Martin 25, Anarug Verma 66no, Carl Botha 41; [Abhi Ganugapati 3/36, Adam Milne 2/4]
Result: Win to PNBHS by 79 runs
POOL B
Wellington College v Wanganui Collegiate
Wellington College: 279/8 [Harry Boam 123, Reece Cargill 69; S Logan 2/75, T Bruce 2/21, Declan McKeefry 2/47)
Wanganui Collegiate: 173/7 [Declan McKeefry 43, Ben Smith 28no; Harry Wright 3/23]
Result: Win to Wellington College by 106 runs
Tauranga Boys’ High School v Christchurch Boys’ High School
Tauranga Boys’ College: 215/9 [Kane Williamson 112; Alex Rowe 2/24, Matt Latham 2/47)
Christchurch BHS: 217/5 [Sam Noster 47, Cameron Bellis 21, Alex Ross 27, Corey Anderson 43no, Tyler Bleyendaal 27no; Brent Hampton 3/70]
Result: Win to Christchurch BHS by 5 wickets
Play-offs
1st and 2nd Christchurch BHS v Westlake BHS
3rd and 4th Palmerston North BHS v Tauranga Boys’ College
5th and 6th Hamilton BHS v Wellington College
7th and 8th Kavanagh College v Wanganui Collegiate
