March 8 2010

The finalist of for the Muirhead Rosebowl have been found in Mid Canterbury senior cricket, with Collegiate set to take on Tech.

The lower ranked teams upset the top seeds to advance to the big show.

 Methven v Collegiate

 Collegiate won the toss and elected to put the home side into bat, and it turned out to be a good call. The Methven top order failed to fire as a combination of accurate bowling and loose shots saw the home side slump to 36/4 before the 20th over.

 Collegiate struck again after drinks to have Methven in serious trouble at 67/6 before Jonathan Leask and Sean Cunneen put on a 43 run partnership to lift Methven towards a competitive total. Cunneen was next to go when he skied one down the ground to be out on 17 with the total on 110. Collegiate then struck again before Leask and Dave Harford pushed the total through to147/9 at the end of 45 overs. Harford finished not out on 13 and Leask finished the innings with a hard grafted 52 after being dropped early in his innings that only had two boundaries as he anchored the innings.

 Bo Houston was responsible for three top order wickets early in the innings, with the other wickets shared around.

 The Collegiate response started positively although with some luck as Bevan Ravenscroft was dropped early. He was the first to go and was quickly followed by another wicket as Methven attempted to defend a moderate total. Bevan Richan and Simon Murison had other ideas as they combined for a partnership of 54 to steer Collegiate towards its target. Murison was then dismissed for 33 but Methven still had a lot of work to do with Collegiate 79/3.

 Richan and Cawte Whiting were able to get Collegiate within two runs of victory before Richan was caught out on 63, just two runs shy of the total. Methven then picked up another wicket but the result was effectively out of its reach as Collegiate hit the winning runs in the 38th over to book a place in the final, Whiting hit the winning runs to finish on 24.

 For Methven Craig Isherwood picked up three wickets and Ryan Ashworth grabbed two, but Methven just didn’t have enough runs on the board.

 Allenton v Tech

 Allenton and Tech squared off for the second time in consecutive weeks with Allenton looking to make it three wins against Tech for the season, while Tech looked to turn around the previous week’s result for a place in the final.

 Allenton won the toss and decided to bat first boasting an experienced batting line-up, but it was Tech which got of to the good start. First Dan Hurley had Jeff Naish caught for just five and then came a major wicket. Dan Thomas ran Lyall Jemmett out without scoring off his own bowling as he and Liam McLeod attempted a quick single.

 Allenton regrouped as McLeod and Robert Madden put together a 74 run partnership. Tech responded with James Cochrane breaking the partnership trapping Madden lbw for 38, and then had McLeod for 40 to leave Allenton 97/4. Cochrane then took another three wickets on his way to figures of 5/46 from his nine overs to have Allenton 138/8.

 It was a good performance in the field by Ttech to restrict Allenton with Aaron Gutsell and Chicken Moore solid in the field, while Allenton would have been happy to post a competitive total. The tail then wagged to push Allenton through to 184 as the last wicket fell off the last ball.

 The Tech start wasn’t what it would have wanted as Allenton got the early breakthrough before Jason Morrison and Morgan Gallagher were able to get the side through to drinks. After the break Gallagher was bowled by Jemmett and Thomas came to the crease. He and Morrison were able to get through to 91 before Morrison was also bowled by Jemmett for 51 before Allenton struck again to have Tech 91/4.

 The match was in the balance when Paul Morrison joined Thomas at the crease with 94 runs to get. The pair managed to get 88 of them before Thomas eventually fell for 63. It could have been a different story when a sharp stumping was missed with Thomas on 49. Paul Morrison and Mark Shephard got Tech home in the 34th over for a five wicket win and a place in the final, Morrison finished unbeaten on 34.

 Jemmett was the pick of the bowlers for Allenton with 3/34 from eight.

Pictured: Tech wicket keeper Paul Morrison moves into position as Allenton opener Liam McLeod looks to play a full toss through the leg side. - Photo Kirsty Graham 060310-KG-390