Waimate Cricket Club

It may have taken nearly 30 years but Murray (Muzza) Prattley is celebrating after scoring his first century (107) ever this weekend playing for Second Grade against Mackenzie/Geraldine in the annual match at Fairlie which has become full of notoriety (mainly due to the trip home), and I’m sure that after this effort nothing will have changed.

 Match Story:

 Murray Prattley and Connor Farrell opened the batting on a hot afternoon in the Fairlie sunny, muggy day. It was a slow and steady start and by drinks at 20 overs we were 87 without loss and Murray close to his fifty. The signs looked good for a big score as Murray was starting to dominate the bowling smashing 4′s at will.

After drinks Connor tried to lift his tempo to match and was out for 21. While Murray continued to smack boundary after boundary as well as push the single, he now was clearing the fence with some big 6′s.

Ruha Davis scored a good 14 before being caught, and Todd Bailey entered for a rapid 25 off 9 balls. This after captain Pete Wallace told him to take it easy and play himself in!

John Dyer saw Murray through to his 100 before going out for 6. With little time left in the innings Justin Thompson pushed and guided the score up over 200, while Murray finally holed out for 107 trying to save himself running he went once to often to be caught well, after a marathon 36 overs batting effort. He offered few chances and played extremely well for his century, his first for the club. Great effort Murray!

The innings continued and Brodie Devine tried hard to hit out but with little time was undone for 1. Zac Aikman batted well to push around in the last over for 3 not out, carrying his bat along with Justin 13*. To give Waimate a score of 211 for 6.

The bowling effort started well with Kerry Weir bowling tidily and taking two good wickets in his opening spell. Justin on the other hand, would like to use the heat as a factor but was a little more wayward than normal to only take 2 wickets for 15 runs from 4 overs.

Enter Brodie and Zac kept things tidy and tight as the both bowled very well. Zac bowling 5 overs 30-1, and Brodie 6 overs 21-1 both controlled the game well. At drinks Murray had recovered enough to get 3 overs in and took the valuable wicket of Bevan Guthrey for 28. Sam Newman got the other valuable wicket of Chris Galwey for 28 also with some interesting accuracy in his 2 overs.

The master Pete Wallace came in to bowl at the end along with Kerry to finish McKenzie/Geraldine off. Pete claimed both of the last wickets finishing 2-7 from 1.5 overs and Kerry 2-13 from 6 overs.

This was a good team effort and the trip home was made sweet by Murray’s ton, and our win. Good luck this week boys as you play the last game of the round at Knottingley Park versus Roncalli.