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3rd XI Cricket

 
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3rd XI Cricket
by Ella Mitchell - Monday, 22 February 2021, 9:39 AM
 

 3rd XI v Couchman’s Electrical Freyberg Cricket Club

The 3rd XI played Couchman’s Electrical Freyberg Cricket Club in the final round robin game. Both teams had a chance of making the top 8 playoffs if other results went their way. The 3rds won the toss and elected to bat on a beautiful Palmerston North day. The openers tried to play positively but tight bowling was making runs very hard to come by. 17 runs in the first 10 overs became 64–1 at drinks. Sam Kennett and Oliver Murray continued to be positive after drinks going around 8 an over. Jacob Duker kept the momentum going after Oliver fell. Sam Kennett brought up his first 50 for the 3rds with a crunching straight drive and then really opened up his shoulders punishing anything loose. Unfortunately he got a little edge through to the keeper in the 38th over to be dismissed for 90 off 94 balls with 11 fours. A flurry of wickets fell after this with the 3rds finishing up 194-7 off their 40 overs. Sam Kennett 90, Oliver Murray 28, Jacob Duker 26.
Freyberg got off to a flyer scoring 21 off 3 overs before a mix up lead to their opening batsman being caught well short of his ground. At 59-1 Freyberg was well ahead of the 3rds at this stage. Tom Collier took a wicket in his first over with his left arm orthodox. Freyberg continued to chip away and the game was in the balance at 84-2 at drinks. The 3rd wicket didn’t come until the 26th over at 126-3. The runs kept moving along but wickets were falling at regular intervals now. Sam Kennett replaced Tom and took 3 wickets to top of a good day for him. A maiden from Kieran Gill in the 34th over helped boost the required run rate. The final over required Freyberg to score 13 with 1 wicket in hand. Some well run twos and a 4 had everyone on their toes. Kieran was able to keep his cool with Freyberg needing 4 off the last ball and bowled a dot ball to leave Freyberg 191-9. A win by 3 runs, and after hearing some favourable results a spot in the top 8 play offs. Sam Kennett 3-19, Kieran Gill 2-18 and a wicket each to Tom Collier, Rory Trotter and Logan Watkins.