Cricket report – PNBHS 1st XI VS Christchurch Boys’ High Touring Team

The 1st XI played a pre-season game against CHCH Boys’ at Paneiri Park on Monday 5 October. Thomas Kirk won the toss and elected to bat first. The openers withstood a sustained spell of good bowling and struggled to get a foothold. The re-jigged top order failed to make inroads and only Bayley Latter (22) managed to reach double figures. Regan Fleming, batting at 6, looked positive from ball 1 and with good placement, intent and running between the wickets, managed to establish himself. With some support from the lower order, he was able to hit out and with his 75 as a cornerstone, the team reached 186 all out in the 49th over. Angus Lyver contributed 21.

The Christchurch innings also started slowly as the PNBHS opening bowlers bowled with good accuracy. When the first wicket fell for 16 in the 9th over, it looked like PNBHS had the upper hand. Unfortunately, the subsequent bowlers looked rusty and some good balls were interspersed with boundary ball and wides. This allowed the opposition to gain momentum and a 90-run 2nd wicket partnership in quick time took the game away. The PNBHS players, to their credit, kept fighting and made the Christchurch batsmen work hard for their runs. This led to a flurry of wickets towards the end of the innings. Unfortunately, PNBHS were probably 30 to 40 runs shy of a defendable total and CBHS passed the score in the 45th over with 6 wickets down. Charlie Lourie was the most successful bowler with 3 for 31.

Overall, it was a good hit out for the team after a long winter.