The Club’s steady run in white ball cricket has seen both the Premiership and Championship Men overcome Sydenham in the knockout stages to reach their respective One Day Finals.
Both games went down to the wire, with the Premier Men rallying around Dylan Hunter who led the charge in a chase of 169 on one of the most challenging surfaces any of our players have ever come across. Hunter finished with 86 off 63 and took the team to within arms reach.
Number 10 and 11, Will Graham and Will Lintott finished the job by grafting away at the final 18 runs to take the game by 1 wicket and send the boys into delirium.
Over at Elmwood Park, The Championship Men looked to be down and out of their defence of 223, with Sydenham Second XI within 30 runs of their target only 2 wickets down.
OBC Captain Scott Willoughby started the collapse and a run out came soon after that. Fred Mowat and Callum Curnow then took the ball from opposite ends and hit the middle stump no less than 5 times between them to leave Sydenham reeling at 218-9 – still 5 runs short of their target at the top of the 50th over.
Mowat held his nerve and restricted Sydenham to just one run off the first 4 balls of his over, meaning they needed 4 off two balls with one wicket in hand.
The Sydenham batter drove one straight into the ground, the ball bounced over Mowat’s head and into Scott Willoughby’s hands, who lobbed the ball to a waiting Tom Taylor at the non-strikers end to run the Sydenham batter out and the game was done. OBC had taken 8-23 and hung on to win.
Finals next week – Sunday 26th Feb
Premier Men v Burnside at Burnside Park
Championship Men v Merivale Papanui at Edgar Macintosh Park