Week 2 of BT20 a success for Crusaders
Posted by Neville Smeda on April 6, 2009
The second week of this season’s BT20 matches went extremely well for the T&N Crusaders, winning all 3 encounters and taking them to 2nd on the log.
Their first match was away against We Are Jazz. The home team won the toss and elected to field on a cloudy day and green wicket. Matt O’Shea and Graeme Jeremy smashed the bowling to all parts of the ground in a stand of 109 for the 2nd wicket. Jeremy’s 70 lasted 45 balls and included 5 fours and 5 sixes. O’Shea was even more explosive as he pounded an unbeaten 104 from just 59 deliveries. He hit 8 fours and 6 sixes to get Crusaders to 212/3 in 20 overs.
We Are Jazz began their run chase well, despite opening bowler Chris Hayward limiting the boundaries with his flight. Carlos Hibbert came on and was torn to pieces, but all went downhill very quickly for the home team when part-timer John Simpson and pace bowler John Branson came on to bowl. Branson made the initial breakthrough with the score at 65 and did not look back. He ended with 4/29 from 4 overs, but it was Simpson who stole the match. He put every delivery in the right place and he deservedly took 4/12, conceding only 3 runs per over from his 4, ensuring that the home team were dismissed for 140. Simpson could easily have been nominated as player of the match, but the award instead went to O’Shea for his masterful batting.
Their second match of the week was even more impressive, and they were able to demonstrate their dominance in front of their home crowd. Michael Prince won the toss against the Royal Crusaders and elected to bat first, once again, looking to dominate and apply pressure to the opposing team. He took his own challenge to heart as he pummelled an unbeaten 117 off only 63 balls, bludgeoning anything short and lofting anything full. His innings included 10 fours and 6 sixes. He was in an unbeaten opening stand of 220 with Matt O’Shea who could not quite keep up the pace with his captain, but still managed 92* off 57 balls.
A target of 221 was always going to be challenging for the Royal Crusaders, and it proved to be as only Praseetha(81) could withstand the pace of Eddie Ayres. The fast bowler notched up 5/22, well-aided by Chris Hayward’s 3/22. Together they cleaned the visitors up for just 139, leaving the man-of-the-match award in the hands of Ayres.
Their final T20 fixture for the week was home to DomsTreturn. The visitors won the toss and decided to have a bat on another spinner-friendly wicket. Despite the prediction of spin-dominance from the groundsman, it was Eddie Ayres again who spawned in with a handful of wickets. He nabbed 5/14 from 4, and showed great pace and control. Duff’s 56* was the only pride in the team’s total of 120. Leggie Stephen Harding took 3/23.
The chase was rather wobbly as the Crusaders lost 3 wickets before achieving their target in the 15th over. Jeremy top-scored with 38, while Moller was unbeaten on 31 from just 15 deliveries. Ayres took home the player award for this match.
Prince said at the end of the week, “We’re playing some excellent T20 cricket and I hope we can continue towards a league victory. We have our combinations working and the guys have really learned how to play this format of the game”.
