Liam Sullivan, pictured here playing for Ashburton College, was in outstanding form last week for the Mid Canterbury Under 17 cricket side. Photo supplied.It might not have ended the way they might have liked but the Mid Canterbury Under 17 cricket side came back to home turf on the weekend with some good results behind them at the Canterbury Regional Under 17 tournament last week.

The team of youngsters, featuring some prominent names for the future of cricket here in Mid Canterbury, lost the third and fourth playoff match on Friday afternoon against a strong Metro Red side but a number of players stood up, featuring in the top 10 for individual statistics for the week.

Mid Canterbury kicked off their campaign with a tough loss to Canterbury Country.

Bowling first, they restricted their rivals to an achievable 134/7 with Liam Sullivan and Angus Spittall both grabbing a brace of wickets each.

In reply though, the green and golds were always in trouble and were eventually all out for 83, with 33 from Devon Flannery the highlight while Sam Cuttle chipped in with 22.

In the second match the side were set to take on neighbours, South Canterbury but the weather took care of that match and it was abandoned, leaving the Mid Canterbury side needing to target their match against Buller to push for higher honours in the competition.

But Canterbury Metro Red stood in the way first.

Again, Mid Canterbury did the job with the ball, restricting their rivals to another low score of 124 all out with Angus Jemmett taking three wickets, while Sullivan and Liam Fuller both grabbed two each.

With the bat, it was a day to forget with only two players reaching double figures before Mid Canterbury were rolled for 56.

The next day the match against Buller provided a far better result.

The job with the ball was done once again with the West Coasters kept to just 103 before they were all out.

Millar Newlands was the chief destroyer with 3-7 off his seven overs, while again Sullivan was in the wickets claiming two, as did Fuller again. In reply, Mid Canterbury did the job easily with Jemmett leading from the top to score an unbeaten 56 to see his side over the line.

Next up Mid Canterbury took on Metro Black and in restricting them to 161 all out they probably felt like they had a chance.

Sullivan had continued his hot form taking 3-38 off seven overs, while Jemmett was again in on the action taking 2-11.

But the batting issues crept back into the game against a good bowling line-up and Mid Canterbury were all out for 83, with a 16 from the bat of Jemmett the best the batsmen could offer up.

That solitary win was enough for Mid Canterbury to sneak into the top four play-off and on Friday they took on Metro Red again.

Batting first this time they scored 122 before they were all out.

Flannery top-scored with 32 while Isaac Bazely and Sullivan were in on the runs too scoring 30 and 24 respectively.

Metro managed to chase down the target easily enough though, losing just three wickets.

Sullivan was again the main man with the ball taking 2-28 while Jemmett grabbed the third wicket.

Sullivan’s efforts with the ball over the tournament saw him finish second overall leading wicket taker in the competition with 11 wickets from just shy of 20 overs during the five matches.

Jemmett was also inside the top 10 with seven wickets of his own and also featured in the top 10 runs scorers for the tournament with an average of 27.3.

By Matt Markham © The Ashburton Guardian - 14 December 2019