The Wellington School of Cricket (WSC) and Cricket Wellington recently hosted a touring party from the St John’s Sports Coaching Foundation (SJSCF) from Hyderabad in India.
The six-day visit saw the tourists play a series of One-Day matches against WSC Academy and Wellington U16 sides and a two-day match against an invitational side hosted by the Hutt Hawks Cricket Club.
The tour was organised by the WSC and was the second of what is hoped to be many reciprocal visits between Wellington and Hydrabad as part of the joint partnership agreement made by the two academies in July 2009.
Previously, a Wellington U16 side toured Hyderabad in April 2010 and played a series of games against and received expert coaching from their Indian hosts.
Despite unavoidable circumstances with the touring party’s travel arrangements, due to visa arrangements and a number of Indian boys subsequently forced to withdraw due to Indian high school exam commitments, the tour proved a success. The tourists had an action-packed stay in Wellington and were treated to the best of kiwi hospitality including their first experience of a New Zealand barbecue.
Arriving in Wellington on Sunday 30 January, the tourists were straight into their work with a fielding session at Wellington College followed by a visit to the Basin Reserve to watch some of the Wellington Firebirds versus Northern Knights One-Day match being played at the time. Then it was off to a training session at the WSC’s Westpac Stadium indoor training facility. The SJSCF boys were impressed with both the indoor facilities and the quality of tutelage received by the WSC coaching team headed by Hutt Centre Manager Ivan Tissera.
Members of the St. John's touring party at a training session at the WSC facilities at Westpac Stadium.
The next day, Monday, saw their first game at Trentham Memorial Park (TMP), against a WSC team that comprised a number of this year’s WSC Graduation Programme students. The WSCGP team was captained by Taylor Wenlock and Jason Hodge was the vice captain. This was also a historic day for the WSC being the first time that a team has been fielded under its own banner.
In a very close and high scoring game, the WSC side won by 13 runs. The WSC scored 232 for 8 from their 50 overs and the SJSCF finished up on 219 for 9. An individual highlight was the WSC’s international student Hareem Silva making 96 run out. R. Symonds top scored for the visitors with 82.
The WSC and St John's acadamy teams pose for a group photo after their match at Trentham Memorial Park.
Day three saw the tourists meet a Wellington U16 representative team at Karori Park. SJSCF batted first and were bowled out for 91 in this match. The Wellington seam bowlers all got amongst the wickets with Wiremu Sharman returning the excellent figures of 2 for 11 of 7 overs. Off-spinner Sushant Balajee cleaned up the tail taking 3 for 5 from 6 overs. Wellington knocked the runs off very easily reaching 93 for 2 in 17 overs, Rakitha Weerasundara top scoring with 41.
The Wellington U16s and St. John's in action at Karori Park
In the return match the next day between the same sides at Karori Park, the Wellington U16s batted first, scoring 310 for 7 in their 50 overs. Rakitha Weerasundara continued his impressive form scoring 88. Sushant Balajee also featured with an aggressive knock of 70. In reply the St John’s Academy struggled for runs being bowled out for 87. Ben Skilton was the pick of the bowlers taking 4 for 8 off 7 overs. Tim Rowe also bowled well, taking 3 for 14 from 5 overs.
The fourth and final game of the tour was a two-day game against a Hutt Hawks invitational side at TMP on 3 and 4 February. In a high quality match the tourists won on first innings, before departing later that night.
WSC’s sincere thanks goes to the Hutt Hawks for putting this game together and helping to host the SJSCF side, as well as to everyone else that helped make their inaugural visit to Wellington a memorable one.
The tourists in action at Trentham Memorial Park