ROUND FOUR
Tournament Points After Round Three: Christchurch Boys High School 8, Wellington College 6, Hamilton Boys’ High School 4, New Plymouth Boys’ High School 4, Westlake Boys’ High School 2, Otago Boys’ High School 0
Hamilton Boys’ High School 256 all out off 48.4 overs (B Hayman 74, G Reeves 53, P Ruffell 5-53) beat Westlake Boys’ High School 119 all out off 30.5 overs (R Langford 44, P Spencer 4-26, R Kleuskens 3-19), Bert Sutcliffe Oval
Hamilton Boys’ were looking to bounce back after a heart breaking loss on Day Three to front-runner Christchurch Boys’. This morning Hamilton won the toss against Westlake and chose to bat. An outstanding opening partnership of 141 between Brogan Hayman (74) and George Reeves set up Hamilton Boys’ for a 300 plus first innings, but with the breaking of the opening partnership, Hamilton Boys’ lost regular wickets and failed to put together any further meaningful partnership. Some late boundaries propelled Hamilton past 250 but would have been disappointed with that total after the excellent opening. Peter Ruffell was the standout for Westlake with the ball capturing five Hamilton wickets to end the innings with figures of 5-53. Westlake would have been confident of their chances after the excellent job of pulling themselves back into this match. Unfortunately it just wasn't to be for Westlake today. There was no looking back with Westlake losing four wickets before hitting 30 and the partnerships needed to chase down this target. With just three players reaching double figures Hamilton’s total was always out of reach. Westlake were dismissed in the 31st over with just 119 runs to their name. Excellent bowling from Peyton Spencer and Rhys Kleuskens picked up four and three wickets respectively. Both teams will head into the final day of this tournament looking to end of a high.
Christchurch Boys’ High School 343-6 (K Challu 122, O Curtis 61, R Foulkes 57, M Smith 50, J Vandenberg 3-84) beat Wellington College 204 all out off 41 overs (S French 41, R Kapur 3-27), Lincoln Green
The fixture that everyone had been waiting for, with the two unbeaten teams, Wellington College and Christchurch Boys’ High School meeting in a match that could decide the outcome of the 2020 Gillette Cup on the Lincoln Green. On a ground that often delivers high scoring affairs, Christchurch Boy’s won the toss and chose to bat and they came out of the blocks hot. Partnerships, boundaries and contributions across the top order saw the match from very early on swinging towards Christchurch Boys’ High School. One of the form players of the tournament Robbie Foulkes again set the tone with an aggressive 57, while at the other end fellow opener Kalhan Challu built into his innings batting right through to the 48th over posting an excellent 122. With all of the top five hitting multiple 4’s and at least one 6 each, they propelled Christchurch to 343 off their 50 overs, placing them well and truly in the driver's seat. Wellington College had already posted 300 runs previously in the tournament including the similar total on Day Three so the run chase was poised to be an intriguing affair. Christchurch Boys’ however had different plans. Early wickets including two runouts left Wellington in early trouble at 29/3 and gave the South Islanders the upper hand from the outset. From that point forward Wellington were never in the game. The big contribution and partnership needed to chase a total never came with wickets shared across the Christchurch team, with a special mention to Raunaq Kapur who spin tied Wellington in knots claiming three wickets with all three stumpings. Christchurch Boy’s never took their foot off the throttle and bowled out their opposition in 41 overs to claim a 139-run victory and place themselves in the box seat to claim the Gillette Cup on the final day.
New Plymouth Boys’ High School 231 all out off 47.3 overs (S Lauderdale-Smith 101, O Ritchie 3-48) beat Otago Boys’ High School 186 all out off 44.4 overs (X Chisholm 89, F Barnes 3-35), Lincoln No. 3
The final game on Day Four saw New Plymouth Boys’ and Otago Boys’ playing on the No. 3 ground. Both teams were looking to improve their fortunes after a challenging week to date. Continuing the trend of the day, New Plymouth won the toss and chose to bat first. New Plymouth welcomed back their injured captain and opening batsman Sebastian Lauderdale-Smith and it was evident from the outset what they have been missing. Lauderdale-Smith produced a memorable innings of 101 from just 94 balls. He shared in a 116 opening wicket partnership with Sam Darth who contributed 33 runs. With that partnership broken, New Plymouth struggled to put together any further partnerships of significant size eventually being dismissed for a middling 231. Otago has proved their ability to chance big runs in almost knocking off Wellingtons 340 from the day before. Again there was a strong start to the innings with a 50-run opening partnership before Jacob Cumming was dismissed. Despite a powerful innings from Xavier Chisholm of 89 at a run-a-ball, Otago struggled to build partnerships. With fielding pressure coming from New Plymouth, Otago wrapped up their innings falling 45 runs short. On the final day, New Plymouth will be looking to finish the tournament with a third win, while Otago will be looking to play spoiler when they play the unbeaten Christchurch Boys' team.
