Tapper’s gritty half-century in vain as AGS defend big total

With three debutants and another trio making their second appearance at this level, it was a relatively inexperienced King’s College team that faced off against traditional foes, Auckland Grammar in the first round of the Premier Competition. Grammar fielded a more experienced team, and this was evident from the outset as the King’s opening attack was made to look ordinary.

When drinks was taken, Grammar had raced off to a fairly confident 74/1 with King’s having used six bowlers at that point. This was indicative of the lack of penetration by the home attack. In the second session of the first innings, King’s managed to match their rivals as the run rate was not allowed to get out of control. At second drinks Grammar had reached 149/4 at a run rate of 4.36 per over.

King’s had been effective in stemming the flow of runs in that session but with wickets in hand, Grammar were expected to exceed the 250 run margin with ease. The fourth wicket pair, who came together in the 31^st over were intent on staying there till the end and put on 111 runs of risk-free batting before being separated in the final over, with one ball remaining. Job done!

King’s run chase was less fluent and with just one appearance between them the opening pair of Charles Knight and Zac Nathan looked uncomfortable. Knight made no attempt to defend one that nipped in slightly and removed his off-stump. Nathan stuck around till drinks and will benefit from this experience of being in the cauldron of Premier cricket. He was slightly more relaxed batting in the company of the experienced Morgan Tapper who was back from a long period of injury. Tapper was a disgruntled observer during the recent pre-season Quad Tournament and approached this innings with mature determination. He targeted the opposition spinners and pulled out the sweep shot with gay abandon.

The 47-run partnership between Tapper and Nathan came to an end and James Nelson joined the nuggety first-drop. This pair put together a blossoming partnership and Grammar were starting to look perplexed. Unfortunately, Nelson fell soon after second drinks at 147/3. With just 100 runs needed for victory and 7 wickets in hand, the match was still very interestingly poised. Two run outs and poor application by the middle-order saw the dismissals of Liam Denny, Tapper, Samar Singh and Justin Nori for the addition of a mere 31 runs.

Grammar were now back in charge. James Bamford went in with the score on 175/6 in the 42^nd over, with 71 runs required in 55 balls and felt that as long as he was out in the middle, there was a glimpse of victory. Bamford put on a batting exhibition of such class, maturity and courage to question the approach of his middle order teammates as he plundered the bowling to all parts of the field but had no one to complement him as Scott Illerbrun and Tim Hamilton succumbed to the pressure and clever bowling by the opposition for King’s to fall 12 runs short of what would have been a miraculous victory.

 Debut: F Priddy, Z Nathan, T Hamilton 

King’s lose by 12 runs