Irvine’s five wicket haul sinks Gillette Cup-bound Westlake

In the most highly anticipated clash of the round the unbeaten King’s travelled north to take on the Gillette Cup qualifiers. King’s won the toss and chose to bowl. Muhammad Abbas sent shockwaves through the home camp when he ripped through the defences of their top batsman and Auckland U19 rep with no runs on the board. When Nick Tapper and Seb Macdonald replaced Abbas and Louis Anderson the home team was hoping for a revival with the score on 11/2 at the end of the 4^th over.

Westlake recovered to 47/3 at the end of the 8^th over when Toby Irvine and Patrick Maher joined the attack but from there onwards it was the all Irvine show as the left-arm off-spinner bamboozled the hosts with his variations and good control. By the end of the match he not only picked up a five-for but was also involved in two other dismissals – a run-out and a fine catch on the boundary of Anderson’s bowling to end the Westlake innings. Apart from a few fielding mishaps King’s applied huge pressure on the opposition batsmen and Max Chaplin, on debut, proved his value in the outfield. Louis Anderson took a well-judged catch in the outfield and took extreme care not to overstep. Tom Paranthoiene was at his efficient best behind the stumps and controlled proceedings effectively.

In pursuit of 93 runs for victory at a touch under 5 per over King’s lost Harry Sinclair who was run out in the 2^nd over with the score on 7 but Achindra Molamure and Abbas combined with a promising little partnership of 14 balls for 20 runs before the former was dismissed. When Abbas was removed in the 6^th over with the score on 37/3 Westlake would have felt they were right back in the game, especially being fully aware of the depleted batting resources due to the non-availability of the seasoned and highly experienced pair of Dimithri Gallage and Nathan Robinson. Nevertheless, the skipper Cory Dickson took no chances and combined with the youngest member of the team Nick Tapper to fashion a recovery. Dickson was patient and knew that Tapper had the skill to withstand the challenging home attack, especially their quartet of decent seamers. Whilst Dickson was watchful Tapper was brave and with wonderfully controlled belligerence capitalised on anything marginally loose. Tapper finished with 5 boundaries, one being a massive pull, high over the boundary with the ball being lost near the motorway. The young all-rounder was unbeaten on 36 runs and looked in total control throughout his magnificent knock and would have cherished the quality time out there in the middle with the calm and battle-hardened Dickson for company – a terrific learning experience of how not to panic and be mindful of the run-rate. King’s had a point to prove going into this match after being denied a Gillette Cup opportunity and Westlake was outsmarted by King’s for the second time this year.  

Mahendra Naidoo
Manager

Debut: Max Chaplin

King’s win by 7 wickets