You can never afford to relax

CRICKET

North Otago's heist of the Hawke Cup was arguably the biggest thing to happen to the penguin province since the Waitaki River got the hydro dams.

A soft Manawatu defence yesterday helped North Otago win the cup for the first time in their 111-year history.

But no-one from Manawatu was begrudging the Oamaru lads their hijacking, not when they won outright by 158 runs with 17 overs to spare yesterday. They had two batsmen as rock-solid as the famed Oamaru stone – Duncan Drew with 102 on Sunday and Darren Broom with 133 yesterday.

Hark back to Saturday, when Manawatu had North Otago snagged at 116 for 9, and let them escape to 207. Even so, a Manawatu side that had won their tough zone, won the cup from Hawke's Bay and defended it with mammoth scores, should have been able to muster 208 for the vital first-innings win.

That was when the trophy was lost to New Zealand's second-smallest association, like the Black Caps being whipped by Bangladesh.

Clearly, batting complacency and naivete crept in, and Ian Sandbrook's 38 was the high score for Manawatu.

His post-mortem? "We're obviously gutted to lose it. But they outplayed us in the end.

"The first innings was the key, and we were chasing our tails after that. North Otago built pressure, and we made poor decisions and gave them the first innings [lead].

"We've got to be proud of the season we had, but disappointed to lose it the way we did. We felt we were a stronger team on paper, but they've done very well."

True, Manawatu were without express kids Adam Milne and Bevan Small. The green attack lacked venom, aside from Bryn Templeman, who took eight wickets, while Jonny Lash was injured yesterday.

More alarming was Manawatu's George Worker carrying drinks for Central Districts in a 13-man squad in Napier when he could've been sent to help the Hawke Cup stay in CD. CD had a spare man in Taranaki's Andrew Mason, but he apparently went home.

North Otago added 124 to their overnight score before Broom saw off six partners and was not removed until after lunch. That set Manawatu 311 to win in 58 overs, a huge task on a slow but turning day-three track.

In their haste, Manawatu's batsmen holed out, ran themselves out or perished lbw, and were rolled for a mere 151 in 41.2 overs. It was goodbye Mr Hawke.

North Otago had their share of old heads such as the province's only Black Cap, David Sewell, and others such as Broom, who plays in Dunedin but is affiliated to North Otago for the season.

"We played out of our skins, really," Broom said. "In the end, it was a bit of a thumping. The fact we made a couple of big scores was the difference."

Selector Pete Cartwright was thrilled. "To come up here and win outright – you wouldn't have thought about that in your wildest dreams." His team had scratched though their zone thanks to other results after losing by an innings to Otago Country, when they were bundled out for 37.

The final word went to Manawatu skipper Luke Murray: "Maybe we relaxed a bit and paid the price."

Scoreboard

North Otago

First innings 207

Second innings 138-3 overnight

D Broom c Cleaver b Templeman 133

D Drew b Templeman 18

S Simpson c Meiring b Cunningham 9

G Cameron run out 4

P Odell c & b Cunningham 7

J Horrell c Sandbrook b Cunningham 6

D Simpson c Sandbrook b Meiring 9

D Sewell not out 4

Extras (2b 4lb 1w 1nb) 8

Total 262

Fall: 46 50 94 177 202 210 225 239 248 262

Bowling: B Templeman 20.2 4 57 2, J Lash 4 1 8 0, J McGregor 10 4 19 0, R Badenhorst 12 1 40 0, J Cunningham 33 6 99 5, L Murray 6 2 15 1, D Meiring 6 0 18 1.Manawatu

First innings 159

Second innings

L Murray c Smith b Sewell 9

W Murrie run out 26

D Cleaver c Smith b Sewell 9

D Meiring c S'son b Sewell .. 14

M Short run out 27

R Badenhorst lbw b D Simpson 19

I Sandbrook lbw b D Simpson 21

J Cunningham c Odell b Smith 12

J McGregor not out 4

B Templeman b Smith 2

J Lash c Odell b Smith 1

Extras (6lb 1w) 87

Total 151

Fall: 14 26 53 64 88 124 133 143 149 151

Bowling: D Sewell 8 0 31 3, D Simpson 18 2 68 2, B Cant 8 1 23 0, C Smith 7.2 1 23 3.

Result: North Otago won outright by 158 runs.

- © Fairfax NZ News