The Wellington U23s missed out on capturing the inaugural National U23s title this week at Lincoln University after being in contention to take top spot heading into the last round of matches on Monday.

Entering the final day of the tournament, a round of Twenty20 matches, Wellington would have taken the title if they had beaten Central Districts and Otago had also lost in their match to Canterbury.

Unfortunately the stars didn’t align for the Wellington side, after Canterbury duly played their part in the equation in beating Otago by 15 runs only for Wellington to fall to Central Districts and lose by 57 runs.

In an evenly contested tournament, Central Districts won and Wellington finished fourth equal alongside Canterbury.

The final points table was:

1^st - Central – 14 points

2^nd – Northern Districts – 12

3^rd – Otago – 10

4^th= – Wellington – 9

4^th= - Canterbury – 9

6^th – Auckland – 2

The tournament consisted of one three-day round, three One-Day (50 over) matches and one Twenty20 match.

Wellington lost their three-day opener on first innings points against Otago, before winning their first two One-Dayers and then dropping their last One-Dayer, before missing out in the Twenty20 round on the last day.

A major highlight for Wellington during the tournament was undoubtedly the batting of Stephen Murdoch, who in four innings amassed 498 runs including scores of 74 and 156 in the three-dayer against Otago and 225 not out the next day against Auckland as he carried his bat to see Wellington chase down 355 for victory.

Other individual highlights included strong batting and bowling performances by Niranjan Naguleswaran, whose scores included 51, 58 and 97 and who took 8 wickets against Otago, Tipene Friday’s 5 for 65 in Auckland’s total of 355, and consistant run scoring from Barry Rhodes (two half centuries) and Michael Pollard (top score of 69).  

 

Summaries of Wellington’s games at the U23 tournament:

 

Otago U23 v Wellington U23 (three-day match)

Toss: Otago U23s, who decided to bowl

Result: Match drawn, first innings points to Otago

Wellington 321 (Stephen Murdoch 74, Chris Tait 54, Harry Wright 52; Jacob Duffy 4-43) & 353-6 dec (Stephen Murdoch 156, Niranjan Naguleswaran 51, Fraser Colson 52, Barry Rhodes 55) drew with Otago 355 (Mark Craig 146*, Geordie Scott 61; Niranjan Naguleswaran 4-77) Otago 288-8 (Jesse Simpson 87, Hamish Rutherford 76, Andy Dodd 53; Niranjan Naguleswaran 4-81)

An enthralling contest with both teams going into the final session with the chance of an outright win.  At 238 for four in pursuit of 320 the Otago batsmen fancied their chances and accelerated the scoring.  However, Wellington fought back with a string of wickets, including three with the Otago score on 262, and changed the momentum leaving the Otago tail to cling on for a draw.

Full scorecard click here

 

Auckland U23 v Wellington U23 (50 over match)

Toss: Wellington won the toss and elected to bowl

Result: Wellington won by 3 wickets

Auckland 355 (Sam Anderson 110, Andrew de Booder 73, Dusan Hakaraia 50; Tipene Friday 5-65) lost to Wellington 357 (Stephen Murdoch 225*, Barry Rhodes 47; Dean Barlett 2-42, Ajaz Patel 2-41)

Full scorecard click here 

Stephen Murdoch blasted an unbeaten 225 off 157 deliveries. Batting first, Auckland hit their way to 355 with Sam Anderson’s 110 and Andrew de Boorder’s 73 providing the bulk of the runs before both falling to Wellington’s Tipene Friday who went on to take five for 65.  Murdoch wasn’t overawed by the formidable total and went about singlehandedly taking it to the Auckland attack. The Wellington opener hit an incredible 24 boundaries and ten sixes to guide his team to a three wicket victory with five balls to spare.

 

Canterbury U23 v Wellington U23 (50-over match)

Toss: Wellington won the toss and elected to bat
Result: Wellington won by 77 runs

Wellington 271-9 (Niranjan Naguleswaran 58, Michael Pollard 68, Fraser Colson 69; Tim Johnston 3-36, Theo van Weorkom 3-53) beat Canterbury 194 all out (Joel Abraham 77; Malaesaili Tugaga 4-29; Niranjan Naguleswaran 3-37)

Full scorecard click here

Wellington’s victory was somewhat easier as they made 271 for 9 batting first against Canterbury and then bowled them out for 194 in 39.1 overs. The top three batsmen all hit half centuries for Wellington with first drop Fraser Colson’s 69 the best.  Canterbury opener Joel Abraham was the only member of his team to make an impact with 77 while Wellington’s Malaesaili Tugaga was the best bowler on display with four for 29.

 

Wellington U23 v Northern Districts U23 (50-over match)

Toss:  Wellington won the toss and elected to bat
Result: Northern Districts won by 6 wickets

Wellington 296-6 (Niranjan Naguleswaran 97, Michael Pollard 47, Barry Rhodes 54, M Taylor 38; James Baker 4-41) lost to Northern Districts 299-4 (Michael Dodunski 85, Bharat Popli 56, Daryl Mitchell 69)

Full scorecard click here

Wellington posted  a decent 296 for six after winning the toss and batting first but a superb top order batting display by Northern Districts saw them make 299 for four in 47 overs.  An aggressive 85 off 72 balls from opener Michael Dodunski set up the pursuit and his effort was followed by Bharat Popli who struck 56 and Daryl Michael who made 69.  Earlier, Niranjan Naguleswaran anchored the Wellington innings with 97 while James Baker was the best of the Northern bowling attack returning figures of 4-41.

 

Central Districts U23 v Wellington U23 (Twenty20 match) 

Toss: Wellington won the toss and elected to bowl
Result: Central Districts won by 57 runs

Central Districts 161-7 (Bevan Small 32, James de Terte 35, Dane Cleaver 28; Malaesaili Tugaga 2-27) beat Wellington 104 all out (Stephen Murdoch 23, Malaesaili Tugaga 23*; Andrew Mason 3-13, Carl Cachopa 3-18, Roald Badenhorst 3-6)

Full scorecard click here

Central Districts put in a strong team performance.  After being put into bat they made 161 for seven and then bowled out Wellington out for 104 in 18.5 overs to seal a 57 run win.The defence of Central’s total was led new ball bowler Andrew Mason who ripped through the top three batsmen to have Wellington in trouble at 31 for three – a position they were unable to recover from.  Carl Cachopa snared three in the middle order before Roald Badenhorst also grabbed three to mop up the tail. Malaesaili Tugaga pounded a couple of late sixes to finish unbeaten on 23 but three was little resistance from the rest of the Wellington line up.