Appleby beat Old Boys by two wickets in Southland’s club cricket one-day competition on Saturday.
Old Boys elected to bat first at Appleby but got off to a bad start when four wickets went down for 25 runs. The middle order of Brendan Domigan (46), Kieran O’Neil (30) and Sam Nicholson (35) got the innings back on track but were each dismissed by Appleby Captain Sam Downing.
Old Boys finished their 40 overs on 155 for nine wickets. Downing had bowling figures of four for 28 and Connor Hart took three for 30 runs.
Appleby opener Pashant Singh (23) was the only top order batsman to get a start as they battled through to be six wickets down for 71 runs. Old Boys bowlers were without the early season’s best bowler, Blake Buttar-Scurr, but Ryan Acland and Chris Case took three wickets each.
Sam Downing then scored a patient 32 from 67 balls and No9 batsman Ryan Rusk (28) saw Appleby through to victory with two wickets and two overs to spare.
Marist beat Southland Boys High by five wickets at Miller St. Marist chased down Southland Boys High School’s 193 with four overs to spare.
The pupils were five down for 53 runs but recovered well to post a total of 193. Sam Smail scored 40 runs, and a Billy Billcliff cameo included five boundaries and three sixes. Billcliff ran out of partners when he was on 55 off 28 balls.
Mitchell Harvey took three wickets for 25 for Marist and middle-order batsmen Alec Mathieson led the run chase with 66 from 64 deliveries.
Waikoikoi had the bye.
— John Langford
