The Wellington Wanderers arrived at the ground early to find it shrouded in heavy fog. This only added to the anticipation of the team as the ground and surrounds were revealed as the fog slowly burnt off. The pitch and the ground were in excellent order, with the effects of a long, hot, dry Canterbury summer manifesting itself in a lightning fast outfield.

The Wellington Wanderers had first use of the wicket to bat on and slowly but steadily got into their work. The innings was built around a fine 102 retired by Rachin Ravindra. Rachin paced himself beautifully throughout his innings and took full advantage of most opportunities to score. Zac Donaldson’s energetic 58 injected some much needed urgency into the Wanderers innings, with the highlight being a six that bounced on the veranda of the pavilion, rebounding through the open door and collecting the photo of the great Jack Hobbs, Walter Hadlee and Wally Hammond!

The Willows bowlers toiled hard as the mercury continued to rise through the innings and whilst we felt that the Wanderers’ score of 280/7 was probably a bit north of a par score, we were still confident of our ability to chase the total down.

Led by some hostile bowling from Jack Sargentina (3/24), the Wanderers were able to put pressure on The Willows from the outset. Whilst The Willows innings had useful contributions from Dave Kelly (41) and Jeremy Benton (35), we were ultimately short of a significant contribution upon which to build the innings. Coupled with the inevitable scoreboard pressure, the Wanderers never relinquished their advantage and in the end won comfortably.

The match was played in excellent spirit and I know that the Wellington Wanderers team thoroughly enjoyed their day at one of New Zealand’s special cricket venues.