Appleby will host Marist in round five of Southland’s club cricket one-day competition on Saturday.
In the second premier grade game, Waikoikoi will travel into the city to play Southland Boys’ High School (SBHS).
In a replay of last season’s final Appleby beat Old Boys by two wickets last Saturday.
Old Boys batted first at Appleby but got off to a bad start when scratching to four wickets down for 25 runs. The middle order of Brendan Domigan (46), Kieran O’Neil (30) and Sam Nicholson (35) got the innings back on track before they were each dismissed by Appleby captain Sam Downing.
Old Boys finished their 40 overs on 155 for 9 wickets. Downing had bowling figures of 4 for 28 and Connor Hart took 3 wickets for 30 runs.
Appleby opener Pashant Singh (23) was the only top-order batsman to get a start as they battled through to be 6 wickets down for 71 runs. Old Boys were without this early season’s best bowler Blake Buttar-Scurr but Ryan Acland and Chris Case took 3 wickets each.
Sam Downing then scored a patient 32 runs and number nine batsman Ryan Rusk (28) saw Appleby to victory with 2 wickets and 2 overs to spare.
In the other game, Marist beat SBHS by 5 wickets. The school’s batsmen had been 5 down for 53 runs but recovered well to total 193. Marist chased down that target with 4 overs to spare.
Sam Smail scored 40 runs and a Billy Billcliff cameo of 55 runs from 28 balls included 5 boundaries and 3 sixes.
Mitchell Harvey took 3 wickets for 25 for Marist and middle-order batsmen Alec Mathieson led the run chase with 66 from 64 deliveries.
In division one Te Anau beat Central Western in Winton last weekend by 4 wickets. The unbeaten Te Anau team will host the Metropolitan Cubs this Saturday.
- By John Langford
