On day one the boys got off to a great start with a big win against Rosmini College. The team scored 249/8 with Muhammed Abbas (Year 9, Marsden) scoring a well-crafted 117 off 144 balls. Muhammed showed great patience and mixed that in with aggressive strokeplay. He was well supported by Sebastian MacDonald (Year 9, Selwyn) with 47.
On day two the team played against tough competition from Saint Kentigern College. We batted first and scored a below par 136 with Muhammed holding the innings again with a resilent 73 runs.
Moving into our bowling innings we needed to get off to a fast start with the ball and the boys came out firing, restricting Saint Kentigern College to 69-7. The weather didn’t play fair however, and hail washed out the rest of the match. Unfortunately, this meant the rules didn’t work in our favour when it came to the all-important run-rate calculation and we missed out by 0.5 runs.
On day three the boys brushed off the disapointment from the day before and played an entertaining game against Auckland Grammar School.
We batted first and scored a decent 170 with Achindra Molamure (Year 9, Averill) scoring 33 with Toby Irvine (Year 9, Greenbank) finishing off the innings with 30.
In reply Auckland Grammar School batted very well and at one point were 129/6 needing 41 with at least 8 overs left. After some gutsy bowling and good catching, we successfully bowled Auckland Grammar School out for 162.
On day four we bowled first and the boys put Mount Albert Grammar School to the sword. Mount Albert Grammar School started off well and at one stage were 52/2 but our bowlers stuck to their task and rolled them all out for 98 with Ben Dunlop (Year 9, Greenbank) taking 2/11 off his 4 overs and Max Chaplin (Year 9, Greenbank) taking 3/12 off his 7 overs. In a race to the finish, William Lusk (Year 9, Selwyn) scored with 46 and Sebastian with 39 for a 7-wicket win.
On the last day the boys knew a win against Westlake Boys High School would give them a chance to take out the title if Saint Kentigern College slipped up against Auckland Grammar School. The boys batted first and put together a well-constructed 183/9 with Sebastian, Toby and Patrick Maher (Year 9, School) the main scorers. In reply Westlake Boys High School got off to a fast start with the first wicket falling at 90 runs. To the boys’ credit, as they have done all tournament, they didn’t panick and looked to put the brakes on with some tight bowling. In the end Westlake Boys High School could only muster 152/8 off their 40 overs with Tobytaking 3/19 off his 8 with support from Ben 2/10 off 8.
Unfortunately, it was not to be, with Saint Kentigern College beating Auckland Grammar School resulting in our boys finishing runners up for the tournament with a 4 win, 1 loss record.
“The boys should be extremely proud of their achievement across the five days and it bodes well for the future of King’s cricket with some talented players coming through the system,” says Head of Cricket Matthew Cowie.
“The Saint Kentigern loss was a tough pill to swallow, but to the boys’ credit, they showed great character and put it behind them to focus on the rest of the tournament.”
