Sunny days greeted the cricket teams over the weekend. The Gisborne and District Cricket Association (GDCA) fixture featured ten clubs competing in their divisions and at the Harley Hammond Reserve in Broadford, their McIntyre Firsts challenged Woodend.
Woodend Captain Marcus Stewart won the toss and elected to bowl first, and Broadford Captain Jack Connell put Connor Stute on to bat first, with Joshua Nolan at the other end. Each player made 11 runs, and Stute held his nerve facing 40 fresh bowls.
Next in the batting order was Braden Hickey and Sikander Sharma. Together, they lifted the running rate as they faced the Woodend bowling duo, Joe Monk and Harry Lawson. Hickey made 24 runs, and hit five 4s before he was bowled out by Lawson on the first ball of the 17th over.
Sharma faced 55 balls and made 34 big runs for the Broadford side during his innings, which ended on the fourth ball of the 35th over after he was caught by Monk. In between, Lawson claimed an early duck with Riley Nolan out unfortunately after two balls. Taylor Shell found the middle of the bat and accumulated 22 runs before he was caught by Harrison Shehan in the middle of the 39th over. Connell was still on the pitch when the innings ended 10 out for 135 runs.
In the fielding Broadford’s bowling duo Nathan Wood and Hickey could not force a mistake from Woodend’s first batter, Marcus Stewart, and he finished his innings 72 runs off 71 balls and not out. Shell caught Xav Tadd out with help from a nifty bowl from Sharma on the third ball of the 23rd over, and Broadford bowler Nolan was assisted by Nathan Woods to catch Harry Lawson out after two runs.
Woodend caught up with Broadford’s score at the end of the 30th over and finished with seven batters on the bench, 2 out for 138 runs and finishing in front by three runs.
Next week, the Broadford will travel to Gisborne to play at Snakey Reserve at 1pm for the first innings of a two day match.
