Karori too sharp for Easts in final

BY SAM WORTHINGTON

The young, the old and a sticky wicket combined for a winning recipe as Karori comfortably beat fierce rivals Eastern Suburbs to lift Wellington's premier one-day cricket club title.

Wet bowlers' runups at the Petone Recreation Ground meant yesterday's final was reduced to 42 overs and Karori captain Simon Baker won a crucial toss.

Sent in to bat, Easts could manage only 113 on a slow surface as young spinner Harry Wright (3-20) and veteran seamer Baker (3-22) impressed.

Karori cruised to a six-wicket victory with Stephen Murdoch (37) and Marc Ellison (30) top-scoring.

Karori will now represent Wellington at April's national club championship in Auckland.

"It will be great and there's a few oldies in the squad that won't be able to do five games in six days," Baker said.

"So we'll be taking a good squad up there with a lot of young guys. Today we were missing Harry Boam and Tom Blundell and the whole club is rapt for [Karori player] Andy McKay and his call-up to the Black Caps."

Baker admitted he was relieved to win the toss.

"I think it contributed. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but we delayed the start for a couple of hours and I think it was pretty crucial.

"The pitch didn't do too much but we bowled really well," Baker said.

"We took most of our chances and just kept the pressure on them, which paid dividends."

Baker was full of praise for Wright, the son of former New Zealand batsman John.

"It's only his second game for the club and he bowled superbly. He's a young guy with a mature head on his shoulders. He's a great kid."

Baker is now looking forward to trying to repeat the dose in the Pearce Cup, which Easts have lifted eight straight times.

"We've been building our club really strong and we're starting to reap the rewards.

"You look around and there's 80 or 90 supporters during the day versus probably half a dozen. So what happens now is we get the good players coming here and that's really helped.

"Easts, they're never beaten till the end, they know how to win and we needed to get this one today. It gives us a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season. We're behind them in the Pearce Cup but not too far, so bring on the rest of the season."

In the senior final, Petone-Riverside (238-9) thumped Karori's second XI (71) by 167 runs.

- © Fairfax NZ News