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| Jeremiah Shields |
The Union Senior team had a win and a loss in the opening days play of North Otago Cricket for the 2010-2011 season.
In the first 20/20 match of the day Union took on Valley on the artificial at Don Field. Winning the toss, Union captain Thomas Shields elected to bat first with brother Jeremiah Shields and Antony Cromwell getting their team of to a good start. With the total on 52, Cromwell was dismissed for 27 bringing in new recruit Mitchell Clarke. The two moved the total through to 83 before Shields was caught out for 39 of the bowling of Wettenhall, Union 83/2 in 12 over's. With wickets in hand, Union started to attack with Sean Conlan's first 5 scoring shots being boundaries, before he was eventually dismissed for 28, including a six. Chris Ware was then sent in to attack hitting three sixes in quick succession, before he was bowled by Squire for 22. Clarke was dismissed for 47 on the last ball of the innings playing the anchor role, three runs short of what would have been a well deserved half century. Union at the completion of 20 over's had scored 174 runs on a quick outfield.With a weakened bowling attack, Union had to compile pressure early and take some quick wickets at the start of the innings, however this did not eventuate as Nick Webster and Kelvin Mansfield took their team through to 74 before the first wicket was lost, Mansfield caught of the bowling of Johnston for 44. Webster soon followed with Chris Ware and Johnston starting to make some in-roads into the Valley batting. When the wicket of McLachlan was taken, Union looked like it was starting to get on top but some aggressive batting from Will Bole (54*) effectively saw Valley to the required total, a victory by 5 wickets. Valley's batsmen found Chris Ware difficult to score of at times dues to his extra pace, while Paul Johnston, who was taken for 11 runs in his first over, took 2-26.
Thomas Shields won the toss again at the start of the second game against Albion and elected to bat first with openers Antony Cromwell and Jeremiah Shields getting their side of to another good start. Their partnership of 39 came of only 4 over's before the wicket of Cromwell was lost for 12. This started a collapse with Union losing 4 wickets for the addition of only 3 runs. Sean Conlan and Thomas Shields then brought Union back into the game with a 92 run partnership before Conlan was caught of the bowling of Whyte for 34. Shields was out 10 runs later, caught out to the bowling of Whyte as well, for 60. This started another collapse as the Union batsmen looked to score runs quickly in the final few over's. After the completion of Union's allocated 20 over's they had notched up a total of 157 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Matt Smith and Ricky Whyte were the pick of the Albion bowlers both taking three wickets.
Albion got of to a bad start being 3 for 17 in the fourth over and never really recovered. All-rounder Brad Kernahan looked like he might be taking the game back to Albion but when he was caught by Jeremiah Shields for 33, Albion's hopes had faded. Steven Halliwell was the top scorer of the innings with 42. Chris Ware once again was difficult to score off taking 2-19, while Glynn Cameron (2-37), Paul Johnston (2-20) and Neville Donaldson (2-17) all took two wickets each.
Player Pages:
Mitchell Clarke | Sean Conlan | Antony Cromwell | Paul Johnston | Jeremiah Shields | Chris Ware |
Union 174-5 ( M. Clarke 47, J. Shields 39, S. Conlan 28, A. Cromwell 27, C. Ware 22 )
Valley 179-5 ( W. Bole 54no, K. Mansfield 44, N. Webster 26, C. Leckie 18no, N. Gilbert 13, Johnston 2-26, Ware 2-27 )
Valley won by 5 wickets
Full scorecard for the match
Union 157-9 ( T. Shields 60, S. Conlan 34, J. Shields 17, A. Cromwell 12, Whyte 3-30, Smith 3-33 )
Albion 137-9 ( S. Halliwell 42no, B. Kernahan 33, M. Smith 16, Ware 2-19, Johnston 2-20, Donaldson 2-20, Cameron 2-37 )
Union won by 23 runs
Full scorecard for the match