Representative Cricket

NORTH OTAGO vs SOUTHLAND HAWKE CUP SOUTHERN ZONE ELIMINATION SERIES Centennial Park 4/5 November 2006

Index | Sen Rep 06/07

The North Otago Senior Representive team's first game of the 2006/2007 season was an home game against Southland at Centennial Park. North Otago's first innings effort of 38 meant they would be under presure throughout the rest of the game against a strong Southland side. A good second innings total 201, Mark Patterson top scoring with 80, wasn't enough to make the opposition to bat again, losing by an innings and 47 runs.

Three articles written by Matt Smith in the Oamaru Mail during the following week. They are reproduced here in full, with thanks to Matt Smith and the Oamaru Mail for providing them for the website.

North Otago’s batsmen will be hoping a disappointing first innings of 38 is behind them after it consigned them to an innings defeat against Southland at Centennial Park on Saturday.
Southland weren’t required to bat again after their first innings of 286, dismissing the home side for 38 and 201 to win by an innings and 47 runs by lunchtime on Sunday.
But early on Saturday morning, confidence would have been high in the North Otago camp, particularly after a youthful bowling attack had Southland three down with 60 on the board.
Even though Southland, through hard-hitting skipper Geoff Folster (63) batting at five and opener Brad Sutherland (36), started to dominate the ball early on Saturday afternoon, North Otago were digging in and had pegged Southland back to seven wickets down with 200 on the board.
However, good lower-order knocks from Shaun Fitzgibbon, with 57, and a big-hitting 42 from Brett Freeman, gave Southland perhaps 30 to 40 more runs than the North Otago team would have liked.
North Otago took a cautious approach early on against a brisk Southland attack, but things began to unravel in a hurry.
North Otago had battled their way through to 18/2 before a triple hit left the home side reeling.
Three batsmen – opener Tony Gray, top scorer Mark Patterson (14) and Robbie Smith – all went with no addition to the team total, and setting any sort of competitive total was going to be a tough ask, with a young lower order to come.
Credit must go though to the Southland bowling attack, which extracted every possible hint of juice out of the excellent Centennial Park track, led by Mark Billcliff and Brett Freeman, who took three wickets each.
Mike McClean chimed in with two wickets of his own for just five runs as North Otago crumbled to be all out for 38.
A batting display with a bit more backbone was evident in the second innings as captain Shaun Haig led from the front with 35.
Mark Patterson looked fleetingly dangerous and received excellent support from Robbie Smith (35), who appears to have found his feet at this level after a tough initiation.
But the challenge of making Southland bat again did indeed prove too much, and by lunchtime yesterday, it was all over.

During a tough weekend for a young North Otago cricket team, Albion bowler Blair Rawson had something to celebrate.
The strapping right-armer gave himself an early 21st birthday present by taking his first ever five-wicket bag, snaring five for 62 from almost 18 overs, and what’s more, it was in his debut game at Hawke Cup level.
Rawson comes of age later this month, and his first “bag” came courtesy of his whippy right-armers.
The apprentice builder has plenty of natural strength and his action reflects this, as he’s very much an effort rather than rhythm bowler.
“This is my first time getting a five-for in any sort of cricket, so I was pretty stoked with that,” Rawson said.
“It wasn’t coming out too bad – I got a wee bit of bounce (but) the pitch was playing well.
Rawson’s not one to worry too much about tactics, and he didn’t have anything in particular in mind against a strong Southland batting lineup.
“Just don’t bowl some wides,” Rawson laughed.
“Nah, I didn’t really have a plan – just stroll up to the crease.”
Rawson has started off the 2006/07 season in good form, taking three wickets for Albion last week, travelling up every weekend from Dunedin to play.
He also plays in the outside backs for the Citizen Shield-winning Athletic senior rugby team, but for the moment, his focus is on cricket and seeing whether he can hold his spot in the North Otago side.
“I hope so, yeah,” Rawson said.
Although, after this weekend, there will be little doubt in the selectors’ mind about Rawson’s value to the team.

Saturday afternoon at Centennial Park was one the North Otago Hawke Cup senior cricket team would rather forget, but it could prove to be a new starting point for the side going into the rest of the season.
North Otago were skittled for 38 in their first innings in reply to Southland’s 286, meaning getting a positive result out of the match was always going to be a long shot.
And so it proved as, despite a resolute 80 from Mark Patterson, North Otago went down by an innings and 47 runs.
North Otago skipper Shaun Haig was not too downcast after the loss.
“It’s a rough start to the season obviously, but we’ll take it into the next game,” Haig said.
“As I just said to the guys, it’s only a mistake if you don’t learn from it.”
How different it seemed though, earlier in the day, as Haig won the toss and put Southland into bat.
“I just thought it would be a good chance to get everyone out there for a start, have a good run around and get into it,” Haig said.
“We actually bowled pretty well so we were quite happy to keep them to about 285.”
A young bowling attack, led by Blair Rawson with five wickets, gave Haig plenty to be happy about by 4pm on Saturday.
But then came an innings which the North Otago players would rather store in the “forget about it” basket – wickets tumbled regularly, with all ten going by the time the score reached 38.
In contrast, Southland captain Geoff Folster was delighted with his team’s start to the season after a Hawke Cup campaign last season, which took them all the way to Hamilton for a tilt at the cup.
“Last year was probably a great year for Southland cricket and hopefully we can continue on with what happened last year with the guys who played and bring the younger guys in there as well,” Folster said.
He had kind words for the young North Otago bowling attack.
“They started off pretty strong and those young guys bowled some good lines and our guys probably didn’t bat to full potential,” he said.
As for North Otago’s first innings, Folster said it was a mixture of events, which led to the low score.
“It was just one of those days where everything went right (for Southland) and nothing went right for North Otago,” he said.
“You don’t really get many of those days in cricket, but you take them.”

Short scoreboard for the match:
Southland 286 (Geoff Folster 63, Shaun Fitzgibbon 57, Brett Freeman 42, Brad Sutherland 36; Blair Rawson 5/62, James Ferris 2/21) beat North Otago 38 (Mark Patterson 14; Freeman ¾, Mark Billcliff 3/16, Mike McClean 2/5) and 201 (Patterson 80, Shaun Haig 35, Robbie Smith 35, James Ferris 19; Billcliff 5/51, Mark Beer 4/32) by an innings and 47 runs.