Fergus Hickey Match v Hamilton 4/5 February

Posted: Friday, 3 February 2017

Bay Of Plenty To Back Up Against Hamilton This Weekend

Bay of Plenty have had little time to savor their success in last weekend’s Hawke Cup defence against Counties Manukau, with the Bay team preparing to square off against Hamilton, in a Fergus Hickey Rosebowl two-day game this weekend (4/5 February 2017).

Bay of Plenty Coach Graeme Aldridge said that “the most pleasing aspect of the big Hawke Cup win, was that individuals carried out their own plans, for long periods. Pete (Drysdale) and Tom (MacRury) started us off brilliantly and from then on Alex (Lees) played a great innings, as did Donovan (Deeble) with support from everyone else”. “We made it hard for Counties to gain any advantage and then basically shut them out of the game”.

Fergus Hickey Rosebowl encounters with Hamilton are traditionally hard fought encounters, with no quarter asked for or given. Bay of Plenty have gone one up in this season series with their long-time rivals, after defeating the Waikato City team, at the ND One-Day Tournament in December 2016.

With The Bay of Plenty representatives needing to beat Hamilton to make the ND One-Day title decider – Hamilton set the Bay a big target when they were removed for 255. Alastair Blackett, in his first season in Fergus Hickey cricket, did the damage with the ball taking 6/35. Bharat Popli took his team home to a four wicket win after scoring an unbeaten 118.

Looking forward to the match-up with Hamilton, the Bay of Plenty Coach said “The Hamilton game continues our season focus. We will prepare well and then if we adjust to the different conditions, will compete pretty well”. “ With another Hawke Cup defence the following weekend there shouldn’t be any issues with playing three weeks in a row”.

When asked about the strengths of the team, Graeme said “I think that our side are preparing as best I’ve seen them. There a lot of individual work being done outside of our team trainings. We are giving ourselves every chance to be successful”.

One of the architects of the Bay of Plenty success in the last half dozen seasons has been captain Peter Drysdale. “Pete is very passionate about Bay of Plenty cricket and is determined to win every game he plays in. He is relaxing as he gets older, which I think is helping his leadership of our group as well as his own batting” said Aldridge

The Bay skipper has played 74 games for his province since making his debut at the ND One-Day tournament in Taupo in November 2009. At the batting crease he has become phenomenal run-scorer with 2521 runs to his name. He blasted through the 2500 run mark in last weekend’s Hawke Cup game with a hard fought 84. The Bay of Plenty Captain has a highest score of 113 not out and has taken 11 wickets as a part time bowler.

There are two changes from the team that successfully defended the Hawke Cup against Counties-Manukau. Alex Gooding returns to the team to replace Donovan Deeble who is unavailable and Mount Maunganui batsman Brenton Thompson will make his Bay of Plenty debut.

Bay of Plenty Team (Bay of Plenty appearances in brackets) v Hamilton @ Galloway Park, Hamilton
RPO Drysdale – captain (74) TJ MacRury (41) AZ Lees (1) BS Musgrave (25) TJ Clarke (62) CM Atkinson (4) Iman Singh (7) Gurwinder Singh (6) SB Davey (31) TC Goodin (61) AR Gooding (7) Brenton Thompson (debut)

Coach: Graeme Aldridge Assistant Coach: Charles Williams
Manager: Wayne Brill

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