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Play starts at 10.30am on Saturday and Sunday.
Whanganui’s cricket team will be in Levin on Saturday to take on Horowhenua-Kāpiti for the final Furlong Cup match..
Since summer 2013-14, Horowhenua-Kāpiti have split their matches evenly with four wins apiece and one complete rainout.
While both teams have the ability to register big wins, and big losses, some of their closest and most dramatic Furlong Cup results have been against each other.
There was 2016-17 where Ross Kinnerley and Trey Bidouis brought Whanganui back from the dead at 125-9 to get them through to 242 and set up a nine-wicket win the following day.
In 2017-18, Horowhenua-Kāpiti were behind on first-innings points, but then staged an amazing day-two fightback to secure a 146-run win, despite Whanganui’s Nick Harding and Connor O’Leary coming within 10 deliveries of batting out the day to save the match.
The 2019-20 fixture had Whanganui get through with just two wickets left to claim first- innings points and send stalwart Dominic Rayner into retirement a winner, while last summer, after being well down on 1st innings points, the veteran Mark Fraser and debutant Shaun O’Leary put on a dynamic 232-run partnership to secure a seven-wicket triumph.
“It couldn’t have worked out better, finishing the season off against them,” said Whanganui coach Warren Marr.
“We know what we’re coming up against. It’s a good opportunity to finish the season on a high.
“It’s always close, to be honest, with Horowhenua-Kāpiti.”
Putting up a couple of good innings is an important achievement Horowhenua-Kapiti has managed during a tough campaign.
Their season started with a first-innings loss at home to The Good Home Taranaki in a two-innings match, while they managed to survive the second day against visiting Subway Manawatū in that first-innings defeat.
There were promising signs away to Hawke’s Bay when staring at a big outright innings thrashing, they raised 348-7 in their second innings to only lose on first innings.
That momentum propelled them to a first-innings win away against Post Office Hotel Wairarapa, scoring 351-7 after bowling the home side out for 140, Wairarapa digging deep to bat out the match at 253-9.
Opener Bailey Te Tomo was in excellent touch in those matches with scores of 178 and 93, while Prabodha Arthavidu Ellawala Liyanage, skipper Andrew Simpson and middle-order batsman Daniel Browne have contributed.
Bowler Jaedyn Dawson took seven wickets in the Wairarapa game.
Play starts at 10.30am on Saturday and Sunday.
The Whanganui team is: Greg Smith ©, Sam Roebuck, Nick Harding, Daniel Burgess, Shaun O’Leary, Carter Hobbs, Hadleigh O’Leary, Ross Kinnerley, Chris Sharrock, Oscar Mabin, Liam Hall, Connor O’Leary.
The team for Horowhenua-Kāpiti is unknown at this time.
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