You need to add he does not mind taking a few wickets as well.
The bright young thing of Otago Country cricket had a fair day out on Saturday as he thrashed an unbeaten double century and claimed five wickets while playing for Wanaka against Queenstown in a Koford Cup 40-over club game in Luggate.
Harper belted 233 not out off 126 balls, whacking 25 fours and 14 sixes at the place they call the LCG — the Luggate Cricket Ground — to propel Wanaka to an imposing total of 342 for six.
Then, after Queenstown had made a wonderful start to be 148 without loss in their chase, Harper picked up the ball.
He claimed five wickets in 23 deliveries, conceding a single run — and that coming from a difficult catching opportunity — as Queenstown were dismissed for 162.
Not a bad day’s work for a 17-year-old cricketer.
"Yeah, it wasn’t bad," Harper told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
"It was definitely a bit of fun."
It was a first double century in any form of cricket for the Mt Aspiring College year 12 pupil, who started the season with 108 off 74 balls then 76 not out off 32 balls.
Luggate’s boundaries are not, to be fair, as deep as the Melbourne Cricket Ground’s, but Harper had to play the shots to send the ball over the rope.
"It just started coming pretty clean off the bat, and it just kept on going.
"They’re relatively short square boundaries and I hit a few there."
He was dropped twice but was already in the high 180s at that stage.
Harper, a right-handed batter who played two Hawke Cup games for Otago Country last season, is only a part-time bowler.
He used to bowl fast but, after recovering from a stress fracture in his back, has turned to some part-time right-arm offspin, and was the seventh bowler used by Wanaka captain Blayne Wegener on Saturday.
"We had gone through the different options and Blayne said, right, you’ve got the next over."
Call that an inspired captaincy decision.
Harper was the Otago under-17 player of the year last summer and has added motivation to keep playing well as he has only been named a non-travelling reserve for the under-19 squad.
He also has to fit in some study as he has one exam — economics — left to complete his school year.
