Poverty Bay lose playoff but save face

POVERTY Bay avoided an embarrassing innings defeat but still went down by nine wickets in their fifth-sixth playoff game against Waikato Valley South at the Northern Districts senior secondary schooboys tournament at Harry Barker Reserve yesterday.
The Bay, chasing Valley’s first innings of 160, were dismissed for 57 in their first innings on Thursday afternoon.
Following on, the Bay were reeling at 25-5 in their second innings, and facing an embarrasing defeat when heavy rain ended play at 5.20pm on Thursday.
Scott Tallott and Tom Needham took up the challenge yesterday morning and added 56 runs before Tallott was out for 31.
Needham and Nick Greeks added 35 runs. When Needham was dismissed, Greeks, who topscored with 55, then teamed with Tyler Phelps. They put on 33 valuable runs for the eighth wicket as the Bay reached 182 — a lead of 79 runs.
Valley lost an early wicket but Ciaran O’Malley (37 not out) and Douglas Bradley (34no) saw their team home with nine wickets to spare.
“This last game wasn’t a true reflection of the talent that is here,” Northern Districts operations manager Pat Malcoln said yesterday.
“They got a pitch on Thursday afternoon that was a bowler’s track, helped by overcast conditions, but they showed today (Friday) they could bat. Poverty Bay are one of our smallest associations but the depth of talent here is quite amazing.”
In the playoff for first and second, Counties beat Northland on first innings points, thanks to a magnifcient 119 from opener Cameron Gibbons, who batted for 226 minutes and faced 200 balls.
Gibbons shared an opening stand of 73 with Ben Turner (31) and a second-wicket partnership of 126 with Matthew Cole (41) as they chased down Northland’s first innings total of 287.
SCORES —
Playoff for 1st/2nd: Northland 287 lost to Counties Manukau 288-7 (Cameron Gibbons 119, Nick Kelly 61, Matthew Cole 41, Ben turner 31) by first inning points.
3rd/4th: Waikato Valley Plains 240 and 97-4 def Hamilton 149 (Matthew Wallbank 43, Maison Carstensen 29; Jeremy Rout 3-18, Michael Wratt 3-29, Alex Lund 2-30) by first innings points.
5th/6th: Waikato Valley South 160 and 83-1 def Poverty Bay 57 and 182 (Nick Greeks 55, Scott Tallott 31, Tom Needham 21; Hayden Waugh 3-22, Elliott Webb 3-34, Nick Perring 3-57) by 9 wickets.
7th/8th: Bay of Plenty Coastlands 296 def BoP Lakelands 259 (Jonty Keaney 53, Sam Pulis 52, Shayde Perham 34, Cody Fell 21; Michael Timoti 3-32) by first innings points.