Students win cliffhanger, Central lose | Rotorua Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Rotorua

There was no better example of the importance of every run counting than in the Premier cricket game between Rotorua Boys' High School and Permaclean on Saturday.

Batting first, the students struggled against an accurate attack and after 23 overs their innings was in tatters at seven down for a palltry 52 runs. It was a time for cool heads and batting at number nine it was Jason Chill Trembath along with Chris Vandervlught who put on a 50-run partnership to get the score into triple figures and bring a modicom of respectability to their batting effort.

Vandervlught scored 15 with Trembath getting 33 before the students were all out in the 43rd over for 114. Alan Jolly picked up a five wicket bag for the visitors.

Permaclean faced 11 overs before the lunch break, looking untroubled in getting through to 23 without loss.

At the restart they continued steadily and although the students had put some pressure on, to have them 57/4 the smart money was on Permaclean.

Two smart runouts kept the school team in the game, but Permaclean had two wickets in hand when they had just two runs to win.

Then the gods smiled on the home team. A short-pitched ball struck the batsman in the chest as he took evasive action, the ball ran down to third man and they crossed for what everyone thought were the winning runs, but the umpire ruled that the batsman had not played a shot and therefore it was a dead ball and the runs didn't count. Then Chill Trembath threw the wickets down from side on to achieve a spectacular run out, so Permaclean still required two runs with the last pair at the wicket, but the last man holed out to midwicket to give the students the victory by one run.

Trembath was the hero of the day for the students, his 33 runs was followed up with a fine bowling performance in which he took 3-12 runs off his 10 overs, while he was responsible for two of the three Permaclean run outs.

At Smallbone Park, Eastern Pirates were looking to reverse the first round result against Central when they were well beaten by the competition leaders.

Central were missing several key players and when Brad Gallon won the toss he asked them to bat on the soft wicket.

With the ball not coming on scoring was difficult and after the first 15 overs Central had scored just 33. They were 53/1 in the 22nd over when Kane Vanner was lbw to Mark Rawson for 24.

Brendon Mahar was in an aggressive mood when he joined Kane Spiers as they attempted to increase the scoring rate, he was out in the 25th over for 21.

Pirates' bowling was accurate and, combined with the slowness of the pitch and keen fielding, Central had to work hard for their runs. Josh Lee and Matt Van Poppell were in control and Central had five back in the pavillion with just 94 runs on the board in the 33rd over when James MacMillan took two wickets in the first over of his second spell.

It was largely due to a good knock from Crispian Stewart that Central got through to 165 in the 47th over before he was out for 49, bowled by 15-year-old Blair Bennett.

Central were all out in the 50th over for 170.

Eastern Pirates also had difficulty scoring quickly, and although Mahir Patel and Josh Lee looked solid they were tied down by some good bowling, especially from the English professional Will Rudge, who bowled an opening spell of seven overs for 10 runs and one wicket.

When Brendon Mahar trapped Julian Christoffersen lbw with his first ball Pirates were struggling at 29/3.

James MacMillan and Julian Danby came together for a productive partnership taking the score through to 92 before Danby was bowled by Stewart. MacMillan was in good touch, playing the spin of Stewart and Mahar well. He brought up his 50, which included a big hit for six off Vernon Roy, in the 34th over. Rudge was brought back in an attempt to get a breakthrough, and although Daniel Fluker was dropped off his bowling it wasn't until his last over he took the wicket of MacMillan when he bowled him for 71. At 153/5 and 10 overs left it looked comfortable for Pirates, but Van Poppell was dismissed for no score by Rudge and the complexion of the game changed.

Captain Brad Gallon joined Fluker and Pirates had just six to get when he danced down the wicket to Stewart but was beaten by the flight.

It was left to the in-form Fluker to get Pirates home with four overs to spare; inflicting Central's first loss of the season.

Scores

RBHS 114 (J Trembath 33, C Vandervlught 15; A Jolly 5-32, G Kilgour 2-15, S Dufty 1-9) Permaclean 113 (S Lawson 19, P McGrath 18, B Mitchell 17; J Trembath 3-12, J Tule 2-21 H Shand 1-7).

Eastern Pirates 171/7 (J MacMillan 71, D Fluker 35no; W Rudge 3-24, C Stewart 2-19) Central 170 (C Stewart 49, K Spiers 29, K Vanner 24, B Mahar 21; B Bennett 2-19, J MacMillan 2-29).

Kazbar Geothermal 224(Shaun McGreevy 30, Simon Smith 29, Mark Ames 28; Alex Davey 3-50, Jody Green 2-24) Wanderers 188 (Karl Bradley 52, Alex Davey 49; Michael Parker 3-34, Richard Millar 3-26).