Season XIII Pre-Season
Masters XI v Oceania Invitational XI
Scorecard
Ball by Ball
Another tremendous hundred by Chris Nevin helped rescue the Oceania XI from defeat against a powerful Masters XI showing. The Masters declared twice for the loss of 12 wickets and set their opponents a target of 632 in the fourth innings of the match. But Nevin scored a stunning 107 and combined with Andrew Delmont (100) in a match-saving partnership of 184.
Hamish Marshall set the game up with another big score - 142 - and four other players scored half-centuries, including the unlikely Mahendra Nagamootoo. A total of 519-8 declared was quickly made more imposing on the afternoon of day two, as Boyd Rankin and Tyron Henderson combined to tear through a tentative Oceania top order. Ultimately all the bowlers chipped in and Oceania XI made just 203 largely due to Matthew Bell's gritty 355-ball innings of 120. Rather than enforce the follow-on, the Masters XI elected to bat again and reshuffled their batting order to accomodate batting practice.
The innings stumbled at 76-3, but Lance Klusener (62 from 81 balls), Dale Benkenstein (101* from 111 balls) and Marshall (74* from 94 balls) counterattacked brilliantly to carry the score to 315-4. The declaration came shortly into the afternoon session and the Oceania XI batsmen set out on their mission to survive more than four sessions for a draw.
Masters XI 519-8 dec.
HJH Marshall 142, ET Smith 73, GO Jones 62, DM Benkenstein 56, MV Nagamootoo 52*
JS Patel 2-73
Oceania Invitational XI 203
MD Bell 120, AR Border 21
MV Nagamootoo 3-21, WB Rankin 3-47
Masters XI 315-4 dec.
DM Benkenstein 101*, HJH Marshall 74*, L Klusener 61
MR Gillespie 1-61
Oceania Invitational XI 390-7
CJ Nevin 107, AH Delmont 100, MD Bell 64
T Henderson 2-51, L Klusener 2-61
Match drawn.