Des Kruger’s batting was one bright point in a tough weekend of Hawke Cup cricket for Mid Canterbury. Photo supplied.Another promising debut from a young Mid Canterbury cricketer is a small silver lining after the side lost their Hawke Cup match against North Otago by 117 runs.

A home game for Mid Canterbury being played at the Aorangi Oval in Timaru, North Otago won the toss and elected to bat.

James Southby had a strong start to the game, taking the first three wickets of the day, dismissing North Otago’s top three batsmen.

With North Otago 90/3, it was debutant Tom Middleton’s time to step up with the ball, taking four wickets from his seven overs, only conceding eight runs in that time.

Middleton had been set to make his debut earlier in the season until flooding saw the side’s clash against South Canterbury cancelled.

The visitors were eventually able to sneak through to 185 all out, with Shaun Stagg, Will Graham and Jay Houston chipping in with one wicket each.

Mid Canterbury got off to a slow and steady start with the bat until Cameron Grubb was thrown the ball, with the bowler eventually going on to take seven wickets in the innings.

He dismissed both James and William Southby and Des Kruger via lbw, bowled Matt Tait while C. Drew caught the other three dismissals.

Kruger top-scored for Mid Canterbury with 39 from 35 balls, while Stagg hit a quick 31 from 17 balls as they limped through to 128.

North Otago then asserted their dominance in the match in their second innings with the bat, with Jeremiah Shields notching up a fine 61 before being stumped by Cameron Jopson off the bowling of Angus Jemmett.

North Otago cruised through to 202 before declaring to set their sights on bowling out Mid Canterbury a second time.

Chasing over 200 runs with less than two sessions to go in the match, fast runs were needed from Mid Canterbury and youngsters Jemmett and Devon Flannery managed to put together a 22-run opening partnership before Flannery had to return to the sheds.

William and James Southby followed with four and eight runs respectively before Des Kruger top scored for Mid Canterbury once again.

He scored quickly, amassing 46 runs off 38 balls before being caught off the bowling of Scott Kitto.

Graham and Jay Houston offered some resistance with 17 and 18 respectively, but the total was always going to be too big a mountain to climb, with Mid Canterbury eventually falling short by 117 runs.

By Jaime Pitt-MacKay © The Ashburton Guardian - 20 January 2020