WESTVILLE Boys’ High School 1st XI took on Northwood School in a 50 over match on Bowdens Field on Saturday. Northwood won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch that looked like it could offer many runs on the day.
Northwood seemed to get off to a decent start but some excellent fielding by the home team soon had the visitors in trouble.
A great catch at second slip by Sam Gervasoni, diving down to his right off the bowling of Carl Jairaj saw Northwood’s opener depart.
He was followed soon afterwards by Northwood’s other opener after another great piece of brilliance in the field by Josh Parker who took a great catch at mid-wicket.
This left Northwood on 31 for 2 after 6 overs. Northwood went on to add a further 60 runs and losing 3 wickets by tea time leaving the score at 91 for 5 in 24 overs.
The sixth wicket partnership of 70 runs between S Capel and A Chiladza steadied the Northwood innings.
This partnership was broken by yet another great piece of fielding, this time by Gustav Durand at point, diving to take the catch to dismiss Capel’s who was on 60 runs. Northwood were now 161 for 6 at the 41 over mark.
A further 76 runs were added for the loss of 2 more wickets bringing Northwood’s total to 237 for 8 after 50 overs. Carl Jairaj was the outstanding bowler for Westville with figures of 4 for 50 in 9 overs.
With WBHS needing 238 runs to win, a big batting performance was needed in order for the hosts to win.
Sam Gervasoni and Caleb Carney opened the batting and put on 18 runs until Carney got bowled for two. In came Josh Parker to join Gervasoni at the crease.
This was the start of what turned into a match winning partnership of 149 for the second wicket between the two. Parker, was caught eventually caught for 60 off 102 balls with the team’s total on 167 for two wickets after 36.3 overs.
With 71 runs still needed off 81 balls, WBHS’s batsmen still had some work to be do.
Sam Gervasoni brought up his 100 and went on to get to 125 off 130 balls hitting 16 fours and 1 six in his innings. He was eventually caught with the score on 220 for 4. The last 18 runs were made for the loss of another two wickets but still with 2.5 overs to spare.
An excellent win for the hosts who have had an impressive season to date.