03 Feb 2020

Monday 03 February 2020

Gallage, Dixon and debutant Irvine wrest control from Grammar in season opener. 

KCT20270319 013


King’s College 217/8 in 50 overs

Auckland Grammar 103 all out in 39.2 overs

At 11/2 in the 5th over and 33/3 in the 13th King’s had to dig themselves out of a hole after being rocked by a relentless onslaught by a discipline AGS bowling attack.

The visitors fielded with athleticism and gave very little away. Muhammad Abbas, Nathan Robinson and Achindra Molamure succumbed to this clinical but simple strategy of the AGS attack and when Nick Tapper hunkered down with Dimithri Gallage the runs were reduced to a trickle.

This duo ensured that no further wickets were to fall as they waited for the rare poor delivery to score valuable but hard earned runs. Gallage cajoled the relatively inexperienced Tapper to withstand the visiting attack that was now into overdrive but 24 runs later the latter succumbed to the building pressure exerted by the visitors.

The loss of the 4th wicket in the 23rd over saw the skipper Cory Dickson join the equally experienced Gallage and this was King’s last hope of a match-winning partnership.

Having played a total of 70 competitions games this duo put together a brilliant and mouth-watering 116 run partnership in 123 balls as King’s wrested control of this season opener on their home turf. Both batsmen registered half-centuries and Gallage looked untroubled on his way to a 2nd successive century in this competition but fell short by 20 runs when he gave his wicket away, more through fatigue than recklessness.

There were a clump of wickets lost as Gallage, Dickson and Patrick Maher, who did not trouble the scorers were dismissed within two overs but Seb Macdonald and a calm Ojas Madaan ensured that King’s posted a demanding total of 217 runs in 50 overs. At 159/4 in the 40th over it looked like King’s would target the 250 mark but super death-bowling by the visitors ensured that there would be no late-innings fireworks.

The opening attack of Muhammad Abbas and Louis Anderson picked up a wicket each in the 6th and 7th over and just when AGS looked like they had a simple plan in mind the mildly threatening 3rd wicket partnership was breached by Macdonald in the 17th over before Toby Irvine, opening with a maiden over on debut, cut through the visitors middle order to pick up 3 wickets in a promising spell of 10 overs.

Irvine was on a hat-trick in his 9th over and when he finished his quota in the 31st over AGS were reeling at 72/6. Jeet Bhatia, Dickson and Molamure wrapped up the remaining wickets over the next 9 overs and AGS, who looked good for a large part of the match were unceremoniously bundled out 114 runs in arrears in the 40th over, giving the home team an overwhelming victory, with more than 10 overs to spare.

M Abbas

1

N Robinson

6

A Molamure

16

D Gallage

80

N Tapper

4

C Dickson

66

S Macdonald

18

P Maher

0

O Madaan

13 not out

J Bhatia

0 not out

L Anderson

DNB

T Irvine

DNB

 

M Abbas

5-2-5-1

L Anderson

5-0-16-1

S Macdonald

5-0-13-1

T Irvine

10-3-14-3

P Maher

4-0-16-0

C Dickson

5-1-19-1

J Bhatia

4-0-15-2

A Molamure

1.2-0-2-1

King’s win by 114 runs