Wolves rewarded for a dominant season

Wolves (Wanders/Motueka) have earned local premier cricket glory, winning the two-day final by 10 wickets over the weekend.

After finishing the first day with a commanding advantage over Stoke/Nayland, they enforced a follow-on early on Sunday to set up a chase of just 22 runs for victory in their second turn at bat.

Going into the last day at Isel Park, Stoke/Nayland knew they were under the pump but had the advantage of leading the regular season table, which would have given them the trophy if they could force a draw.

With play ending on day one with Stoke/Nayland at 113/8 in pursuit of Wolves’ first innings score of 283/10, the home side needed to get within 100 runs to restrict the follow-on but lost their two remaining wickets early in the day to finish on 135.

Darius Skeaping (43), Dylan Eginton (23) and Ben Neale (18) were the bright spots of a scorecard that didn’t show the true potential of their squad, as no other batsmen made double-digits.

But on a batsman’s wicket, the Wolves’ bowlers came to play. Michael Olsen picked up four scalps for just 24 runs, while Sean Neal, Hayden Ingham, and Joseph O’Connor finished with two each.

Dylan continued his strong form with 63 more runs for Stoke/Nayland in the second innings, but again it was a bright spot in a scorecard where the team’s on-form batsmen like Jonty Raxworthy didn’t have the performance fans and players alike expected

Joseph O’Connor would pick up a five-wicket bag in the second innings, with the big paceman bowling 15.2 overs on his way to four maidens, allowing just 26 runs while also picking up a catch in the field.

Joseph was also the batsman to hit the winning runs, having finished on 16-not-out to add to his 52 runs from the first innings in a man-of-the-match performance.

It was an improved performance by Stoke/Nayland on day two, but not enough in the high-pressure finals environment as Wolves were out for redemption.

Having been the in-form team for the whole summer, Wolves had missed out on the silverware in the mid-season T20 final to ACOB and weren’t going to let another trophy slip out of their fingers.

The team is in action again this weekend as they look to add another title to the trophy cabinet as the season culminates with the one-day finals.

Wolves finished the regular season on top of the table, earning them a place in Sunday’s final, where they will face the winner of Saturday’s 2v3 semi-final between Wakatu New World Nelson City and Stoke-Nayland, who will be out for redemption of their own.

With Saturday’s game at Marsden Recreation and Sunday’s final at Brightwater Domain, local cricket fans will get their fix as the White Ferns also head to town for a double-header of action on Friday and Sunday.