MenInPink

Back down to the Basin Reserve again this afternoon for another instalment of the HRV Cup Twenty20 competition. Last weekend, Wellington had won one and lost one match; on Thursday they played away against Central Stags in Nelson, winning by eight wickets, after being set a low-ish score of 128 to chase. So far, so good, and they were riding high near the top of the table.

Today’s match was against the Northern Knights, who play in pink. They had dropped their first match, but won the next two, so were level pegging with Wellington before play began.

Northern Knights in their pink kit

The Knights got off to a blistering start, powering to 50/1 after 5 overs. In the 6^th over, Wellington took 2 wickets for only 3 runs, and in the next few overs it looked like they were regaining control. Unfortunately this wasn’t to last, and the Knights soon picked up the scoring rate again; despite the loss of further wickets, they managed to finish on 201/6 – a run rate of more than 10 an over.

This was never an easy ask for Wellington; they scored slowly to begin with, dropping an early wicket. Despite an inspiring attempt in the 6^th over when they hit 19 runs, they never got on top of the required run rate, and lost wickets steadily throughout the innings. By the time of the last 6 overs, the RRR had risen to 15 an over, and was looking impossibly out of reach. The last wicket fell with a ball remaining, and a score of 147.

Wellington are now languishing in 4^th place in the table. Their next game is against Auckland, at 5pm on Tuesday, which we hope to be able to make. After that they have a string of away games before returning for their penultimate match at the Basin Reserve. Unfortunately we will be away in the Bay of Islands, so we’ll miss that one. If they make the top two of the league, the final will be played on 2^nd January.

I have a theory, called “the Boy Named Sue Theory”. You will recall the song, A Boy Named Sue, by Johnny Cash? You can see where I’m going with this – I reckon because the Northern Knights have to wear pink pyjamas, they’re used to being picked on by the other cricket teams with their “sensible” team colours. This has made them stronger and better. Thanks to that high score, they’re currently top of the table. Go figure.