Wellington U20s player/coach Matthew Bell guided the Wellington U20s to their third consecutive Wilkinson Pearce Cup One-Day win with a match winning innings of 76 off 96 balls in their game against Wellington Collegians at Kilbirnie Park on Sunday.
Bell all but carried the U20s home after they had been in early trouble chasing a modest 139 victory target, following a committed all-round bowling and fielding effort.
He was the seventh and last batsman dismissed, departing with the score on 133 and his team 6 runs short of the required mark. Batting at number five, Bell came to the crease with his team reeling at 17 for 3. This soon became 29 for 4 when Craig Cachopa became left armer and Collegians skipper Julian Brown’s third victim.
Bell then dug in and added a further 28 runs with Corey Larsen and another 55 with Jamie Gibson, the middle order holding off Brown (3 for 27 off 9 overs) and current and recent Wellington Firebirds duo Scott Kuggeleijn (1 for 25 off 10) and Malaesaili Tugaga (2 for 23 off 7).
Charlie McLean hit the winning runs with the last ball of the 39th over to secure a Pearce Cup One-Day bonus point for the U20s.
Earlier, the U20s bowled well as a group to dismiss Collegians for 138 in the 47th over. Wicket takers were Sean O’Connor (3 for 31 off 10 overs), Andrew Pollock (2 for 24 off 10), Fergus Martin (1 for 19 off 9), Larsen 2 for 26 off 9 and Gibson (3 for 21 off 3).
For Collegians, first drop Chris Fowler top scored with a patient 41 off 86 balls, James Crichton made 22 and Kuggeleijn looked comfortable making 17 before holing out at long off to spin option O’Connor.
In a new initiative this season, the Wellington U20s are playing One-Day competition matches on Sundays against all eight of the Pearce Cup club sides. Full competition points are on offer in these games, although the U20s are ineligible to make the One-Day series final should they finish first or second at the end of the round-robin in January – a distinct possibility at this stage.
This win over Collegians for the U20s comes after them beating North City by 83 runs and Naenae Old Boys by 23 runs, defending totals on both occasions. Against North City they scored 170 and bowled their opposition out for just 83 and against Naenae they scored 84 and then bowled their opposition out for just 60.
They now turn to face defending One-Day and overall Pearce Cup champions Karori next Sunday at Karori Park in their fourth round match.
Bell said afterwards that the concept of the U20s playing against the eight Pearce Cup sides is potentially hugely beneficial to the cricketers in the squad.
“Filling in that gap and giving them more exposure to harden them up and playing against men in a men’s competition is a huge step towards their development as cricketers,” said Bell. “If they are good enough, you’ve got to give them a crack and get them exposed to more cricket.
“The more cricket you play, the more time you get in different situations and the more you can talk about it.
“These guys can see there are certain situations that require different tactics and different game plan and they are starting to communicate more with one another about the game. They need to keep observing what the good players are doing in their team and in the opposition, learning from that and making sure they are self sufficient.”
Bell added that much of this was borne out in this performance against Collegians.
“I saw it today when we bowled first. There was a bit more shoulders back and a bit more chit-chat and attitude that we are here to compete and we are not just a bunch of kids that are going to be steamrolled."
He was pleased to lead by example. “I talked to the guys about trying to take it as far as possible into the innings. I all but did that today – and that is what I am trying to get them to do - not to get 30s and 40s, but to keep going and bat late into the innings and not put the pressure on someone else to do the job. When it’s your day you’ve got to make sure you take the team home.”
U20s manager Gavin Larsen is also happy with the start the U20s squad has made.
“I’ve been really pleased from what I have seen so far from the group. We’ve had to dig deep into our 17-18 player squad already and they’ve all stood up in their own way so far,” said Larsen.
“The idea behind these matches is that we’ve got a group of talented cricketers that come out of the 18 representative programme and there’s now a gap for them through to Wellington U23 level, so this is an effort to close of that gap and give these guys serious meaningful cricket against Pearce Cup opposition.
“I think one of the huge advantages we’ve got is Matthew as captain and they’re feeding off his presence and mana and really strong tactical and technical knowledge of the game.”
Saturday club cricket rained off
The midweek rain which had caused all Wilkinson Pearce Cup and Hazlett Trophy matches to be transferred to artificial wickets had the final say as all matches on Saturday were abandoned at various stages.
Onslow were only able to face 4 overs against Karori before rain set in.
Collegians were 88-3 after 16 overs against Upper Hutt, opener Mango Thevakulasingam making 46 in that time.
North City dismissed an under-strength Taita side for 88. Taita were without six regular players. Hamish Kyne got another five wicket haul with 5 for 20 and Tipene Friday took 3 for 22. Norths were 33 for 3 at the end.
Easts had made 151 for 4 against Naenae Old Boys before play was abandoned, opener Ben Orton making 54
In the Hazlett Trophy leaders Hutt District were 193 for 2 with Andrew Roberts unbeaten on 87. Taita were dismissed for 129 by Karori, Johnsonville were 119 for 9 against University with Scott Mudgway making a run a ball 43, while Petone-Riverside were 28 for 1 against Wainuiomata.