1st Test: Cricket Web XI vs New Zealand
CW Oval
Scorecard
Ball By Ball
After a nervy start, hosts Cricket Web XI dismantled the New Zealand effort on the fourth day, helped by suicidal batting and a rapidly wearing wicket. The big story of the day, however, was the Webhead batsmen, who continued their fine form from the tour of England despite early setbacks.
Young played Mills well except for one indiscretion, a left ball that cannoned into off stump, and wickets kept falling at uncomfortable intervals. Cloete gave a return catch on 11, Mørk was dropped on 41 only to fail to exploit it, and at lunch they were precariously placed at 124 for three.
The afternoon session on the first day was perhaps CW's best of the first nine sessions. Fine strokes littered the boundaries, Dauth reached his hundred (after a small reprieve by Ryder on 92), and the New Zealanders were unable to take a wicket.
If the second session belonged to the Webheads, the third belonged to Chris Martin. It took three balls to get Dauth out for 114; he ended with six for 58 in his two spells of the evening, rattling the Webheads for 388 after Jasotharan and Wilson were both caught by Fulton. Thus, Martin ended with career-best figures of seven for 107.
After Bell and Cumming were both dismissed for low scores, Cricket Web saw an opening. The two had, however, blunted the ball, which allowed Fulton and Sinclair to wrest control of the game. The two were dominant until lunch, clattered fours off Pickup and Demeza immediately afterwards, and suddenly both had eased to fifties. Eventually, Fulton was put down, as is to be expected during a stand of 182; Mørk held the next chance, and Pickup cut Ryder's innings short with a flipper that went to Young at slip.
Lower order resistance, however, upped the total. Oram managed 43 in a productive evening session, though the Webheads would be pleased with the evening's work as they got four wickets. In the morning, however, Hiini and Mills batted patiently while the hosts went totally off the boil, resulting in 86 to the total and a lead for the tourists. No bowler really emerged with credit; Demeza took four wickets, including a crucial breakthrough in Mills, but that included the three lowest.
At 54 for two just after lunch, Mørk out to an injudicious stroke, Cricket Web were staring down the barrel. The Edfield crowd, so often disappointed this season, braced themselves for another shock upset. Dauth managed 42 before tea, adding 83 in an entertaining partnership with Cloete, but when he padded up to Ryder at 61, it looked as though New Zealand would chase a small target - though the two hours of play remaining on the third day would decide much.
In that time, Cricket Web effectively wrested control. Helped by friendly umpires, who refused to give the lbws - except against nothing bowlers - Jasotharan and Butler bludgeoned the runs in typical Colts fashion, smacking 115 in less than twenty overs to inflict huge psychological damage. Wilson carried on in the same fashion when one of Jasotharan's big strokes eventually went to hand; the allrounder smacked four sixes in a near run-a-ball 84. Butler ended on 140, and the total of 509 led to a record target for New Zealand.
It ended predictably. Despite the smacking efforts by the Webhead lower order, there lurked gremlins in the pitch. At tea, New Zealand were precariously placed at 56 for two; Pickup and Richards then took a wicket each with balls that kept deceivingly low, and the rest of New Zealand's batting order wilted as they completed the 320-run defeat; Demeza once again rattling through the tail.
Cricket Web XI 1st innings 388 all out (88)
RJ Dauth 114, CR Butler 58, S Jasotharan 57; CS Martin 7/107
New Zealand 1st innings 425 all out (125.3)
MS Sinclair 118, PG Fulton 87, BC Hiini 53*; TJ Demeza 4/105
Cricket Web XI 2nd innings 509 all out (109)
CR Butler 140, MW Wilson 84, S Jasotharan 78, RJ Dauth 61
New Zealand 2nd innings 152 all out (47.3)
TJ Demeza 4/70, DP Richards 3/22
Cricket Web XI won by 320 runs
Man of the Match: C. R. Butler (CW XI)