New Zealand: St Albans grabs top qualifier's berth (8 February 1999)

8 February 1999

New Zealand: St Albans grabs top qualifier's berth

The Christchurch Press

St Albans surged through from third position to be top qualifier in the WestpacTrust Cup one-day cricket competition after the round-robin series.

A century partnership between Craig Cumming and Steven Knox carried St Albans out of Riccarton's range at Hagley Oval on Saturday, while the other leading side, High School Old Boys, sat out a bye.

Hagley neighbours St Albans and Old Boys will clash in Sunday's major semi-final, while Riccarton plays Lancaster Park-Woolston in the sudden-death minor semi-final.

Lancaster Park-Woolston has already played one all-or-nothing match. On Saturday it beat Burnside-West by 27 runs at Garrick Park in a game which decided the fourth semi-finalist.

Cumming and Knox came together with St Albans struggling at 16 for two and confidently added 114 runs to wrest the initiative from Riccarton. In reaching the 80s for a second consecutive innings, Cumming hit 10 fours and a six. Knox included eight fours and a six in his unbeaten 66.

The early damage had been caused for Riccarton by opening bowlers Darren Walker and Wayne Stead. Walker returned another impressive bowling analysis, while Phil Monk also conceded only 22 runs from his 10 overs without claiming a wicket.

After Paul Miller and Aftab Habib had Riccarton promisingly placed at 76 for two, the innings went into a steady decline. Left-arm spinner James Ward highlighted his excellent spell by brilliantly catching Habib from his own bowling, while medium-fast Chris Martin had three victims at minimal cost.

Burnside-West's hopes of staying alive in the competition only expired after Park-Woolston had overcome Campbell Ogilvie's brave all-round resistance. Ogilvie made regular inroads into a very consistent Park-Woolston batting effort, then recorded the highest individual score of the round. His 94 from 111 balls included 10 fours and a six.

Ogilvie shared half-century stands with Gerald Barrett and Mark Lumsden in the middle-order after Burnside-West had seemingly been on its knees at 30 for four. Barrett struck out successfully for a while, and Lumsden reached 19. However, Park-Woolston's batting was far more solid, with Carlos McGillivray, run out soon after reaching his half-century, being the most prolific.

East-Shirley and Old Collegians joined Burnside-West in fifth position when they left Marist and Sydenham languishing below them.

Carl Anderson's fine display with bat and ball, an unbeaten half-century by experienced Craig Gibb, and useful runs from young Tim Papps and Russell Rhodes -- both playing only their second cup innings -- gave East-Shirley a decisive margin over Marist at Middleton Park. That was certainly not the fault of Chris Bird. He took four wickets with his medium-pacers, then hammered three sixes and five fours in his half-century.

In a low-scoring affair at Elmwood Park, Old Collegians got up to win thanks to an unbroken ninth-wicket partnership of 33 runs between No. 10 batsman, Simon Harding, and James Ussher.

St Albans 179-6 (Craig Cumming 84, Steven Knox 66no; Darren Walker 3-22) beat Riccarton 145 (Paul Miller 41, Brent Miller 38, Aftab Habib 24; James Ward 4-21, Chris Martin 3-7) by 34 runs.

Lancaster Park-Woolston 230-9 (Clayton Cornelius 28, Steve Gibson 29, Carlos McGillivray 53no, John Stuart 35, Anthony Timpson 24no; Campbell Ogilvie 4-48, Gerald Barrett 2-44) beat Burnside-West 203 (Ogilvie 94, Barrett 30; John Quinn 2-29, Wade Cornelius 4-36) by 27 runs.

East-Shirley 225-5 (Carl Anderson 50, Craig Gibb 58no, Tim Papps 41, Russell Rhodes 40no; Chris Bird 4-30) beat Marist 147 (Bird 51, Sean McWhirter 28; Carl Anderson 4-40) by 78 runs.

Sydenham 122 (Greg O'Reilly 20; Dave Cartwright 5-28, Mark Rountree 2-13, Andrew Hughes 2-12) lost to Old Collegians 123-8 (James Blakely 23, Simon Harding 23no; Ken Julian 4-25) by two wickets.

High School Old Boys bye.

Points: St Albans 12, Old Boys 11, Riccarton 11, Park-Woolston 9, Burnside-West 7, East-Shirley 7, Old Collegians 7, Marist 5, Sydenham 3.

Source :: The Christchurch Press (https://www.press.co.nz/)