Olliver brilliance headlines King’s triumph over Westlake Boy’s High

Josh Olliver was shifted down the batting order with a key role of strengthening the middle and tail and he performed this task impeccably to score a valuable 55 runs. His innings ensured that King’s posted a defendable target for the bowlers. With ball in hand, he turned into a ‘one-man’ wrecking machine as he decimated the Westlake top order with a fiery opening spell to claim 3 wickets in 4 overs.

Karl Wallace managed proceedings in place of regular skipper Nick Tapper, who was unavailable due to illness, and he stuck to the game plan magnificently. Incidentally, Wallace was awarded his baggy for completing 12 competition games for the 1^st XI.

James O’Connor was handed a debut and opened the innings with Tom Lindberg. O’Connor looked in full control until he was run out, through no fault of his own. Both openers were ousted by the 7^th over and the talented James Nelson gave in to impatience in the 20^th over to find himself heading for an early shower.

Wallace was batting with Morgan Tapper when the runs began drying up even more, resulting in the former also being frustrated into giving up his wicket. Tapper was joined by Olliver and complied a slow but healthy partnership of 57 runs in 99 balls. This turned out to be a match winning one in the end which shows how valuable an innings both of these batters played.

Tapper faced 75 balls, which is more than any other batter in the first innings. He struggled to score but this did not deter him. Under Olliver’s guidance, he grew in confidence and understood that the team needed him to build a partnership. With the score at 58 for 4 and King’s in a spot of bother, it was rather reassuring that Olliver was still available, together with Liam Denny, James Wilson, Jack Priddy and Jonty Willis. This was not the case in previous matches when Olliver batted up the order. So, at four down King’s were still in a position to bat out the overs and set a respectable target. Olliver proved that he had the awareness and team-mindedness to carry this out.

In pursuit of a modest 167 runs for victory, Westlake started off disastrously as ‘Hurricane Olliver’ was unleased. Coming in from the Hospital end, into the wind, he began with two wides down the leg-side but when he straightened up a tad the ball kissed the glove and was easily taken by Wallace down the leg-side to have the opposition reeling at 3/2 in the first over.

Jonty Willis bowled a tight second over from the Albany end but in his second over he unluckily leaked three boundaries, via edges. Olliver sent back the dangerous Rustin Langford in the 5^th over with the assistance of Willis, who took a brilliant catch running in from the backward of square boundary. Westlake, were stunned, but being well ahead of the run rate, with lots of batting to come they had no reason to panic. The fourth wicket partnership slowly blossomed and lasted over 25 overs (68 runs in 165 balls at 2.47 RPO). This is when King’s came back into the game and started to gain some ascendancy.

Furthermore, this was mainly due to disciplined bowling, good captaincy, clever bowling changes and sticking to a plan. Once the 4^th wicket partnership was broken, Westlake capitulated from 93/3 to 115 all out in the space of nine overs. Both the spinners, James Nelson and Justin Nori were very influential in the middle overs. Nori removed both the key batsmen who could have taken the game away from King's. The first change pacers, Liam Denny and Jack Priddy kept a tight rein on the batters and Willis came back into the attack with an economical second spell. Olliver came back for his second spell and doubled his wicket tally to finish with outstanding figures of 6/15 and secure a ‘man-of-the-match’ performance after his mature innings with the bat earlier in the day.

Debut: James O’Connor

King’s win by 51 runs