The Pink Report

Hawke Cup Runs Over

Hamilton's brilliant defence of the Hawke Cup on the weekend was one for the books. Talk about overachieving.

The team played outstandingly well at Galloway Park, not so much crushing Wairarapa's spirits as digging a large hangi pit in the middle of the wicket and feasting on the scraps of the opposition's roasted self-esteem.

It's not every day you see a team power to a total of almost 700 inside two days. Supported by Bradley Scott's late-order 79, Keir Bettley (145), BJ Watling (170) and Andrew Dodd (137) all raised their bat for the three figures in Hamilton's first innings of 678, then the all-Knights bowling attack went to work on the demoralised Wairarapa batting line-up to make sure no single batsman even broke 40, let alone 50.

Andy Mathieson took four for 29 off 17, young spinner Joe Walker three for 61 off 11.4 and James Baker two for 23 off 14, with Bradley Scott almost as parsimonious with just 16 runs coming from his eight. Wairarapa were dismissed for 137 and threw in the towel there and then, the draw called after lunch on the third day.

That's the biggest Hawke Cup total since Manawatu made 516 two seasons ago. Fantastic defence by the home team.

Hamilton's next challenge comes from Nelson, the zone three winners playing their first Hawke Cup match in seven years. The match starts on Friday February 24, the same day that the Yahoo!NZ Northern Knights begin their Plunket Shield match against Canterbury in Rangiora and the day before the Blackcaps launch their one-day series quest against South Africa.

Even with all that going on, Hamilton has good depth and should scrub up well against a team that last held the Cup in 1997. Wicketkeeper and run-maker BJ Watling, Mitchell Santner and James Baker will be otherwise engaged in Gisborne in the Plunket squad from this Friday, and you'd expect BJ to be then called away to the tests, but, for instance, young wicketkeeper/opening batsman Owen Ivins, who kept in the previous challenge, has himself already represented the Knights.

The triumphant Tron team will need a good line-up because Nelson has been showing pretty solid form with a string of outright wins in their provincial encounters within their zone.

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While it pains me to say it, well done to the Dirty Stags on their stupendously exciting Ford Trophy final victory over the Stinky Aces yesterday. Great to see people pouring into Pukekura Park for the big event and what a show they were rewarded with.

There's been a lot of comment that it was just brilliant to see one of the genuine nice guys of the game, former Blackcap Michael Mason, end his long CD career in such heroic fashion. He's not only one of the nice guys, but one of the fittest 37-year-olds around - and after this season's HRV Cup also goes down as one of the exponents of the world's greatest boundary catch. It's all a bit of a shock, since he looked like he might carry on running in and taking wickets until he was drawing a pension.

I might add that one of the other genuine nice guys was bowling at the time, but I'm sure Chris Martin would have been among the first to congratulate him. Told ya domestic one-day cricket was worth watching!