Super 8 Cricket Report

In the final week of the summer holidays, the Hamilton Boys' High first XI cricket team competed in the Super 8 cricket tournament in Rotorua. We produced an extremely young side including 4 year 11’s and 6 year 12’s. Despite this, we still held high expectations of ourselves over the week.

 In our first game we came up against Hastings Boys’ High School. We won the toss and batted first, as Hastings came out firing, ripping through our batting line-up as we were bowled out for a disappointing 98. The only form of resistance came from Matt Lowe who scored 30. The team were fired up as we bowled Hastings out for 70 with Maison Carstensen and Te Raina Richards-Coxhead picking up 3 wickets and Matt Wallbank picking up 2.

In our second game we defeated Gisborne Boys High school by 45 runs. We batted first and compiled 160. Danyn Stewart top scored with 38. We then dominated in the field, bowling Gisborne out for 115. Maison Carstensen was the chief destroyer, taking 4 wickets. Matt Wallbank and TeRaina Richards-Coxhead also picked up 2 wickets each.

Our third game saw us take on New Plymouth Boys High School for a place in the final. We batted first and made 180 with Shaun McCarthy and MaisonCarstensen scoring 50’s. New Plymouth looked on track to reach the target, but their middle order crumbled as we came out victorious by 50 runs.  Jonty Keaney, Matt Wallbank and Shaan Singh-Parhar were the most successful with the ball, taking multiple wickets each.

In the final we met an extremely strong, experienced Napier Side. Napier batted first and compiled a huge total of 290. Jonty Keaney was the most successful with the ball taking 2 wickets. We struggled for the entire run chase and never really got going. At the end of the 50 overs we had reached 190-8. The main contributors with the bat were Jonty Keaney and Mitchell East, who both compiled 44.

Super 8 proved to be a huge learning experience for our boys as it showed us that despite the fact that we are an inexperienced side, we can still compete and do well against quality opposition.

A huge thank you must be extended to Mark and Donna Keaney who provided us with accommodation for the week, it was greatly appreciated by the team and management. I would also like to thank our coaches Chris Kuggeleijn and Tim Aughton who assisted us throughout the week. Without you none of this would have been possible.

 Matt Wallbank