Having dominated the majority of the first days play Revital Taranaki found a way to lose their Furlong Cup match against Whanganui on the 1st innings and with that any chance of retaining the Furlong Cup and having a challenge.
Having won the toss and electing to bowl, Taranaki’s opening bowlers Ryan Watson and Ethan Keller were guilty of chasing wickets and lacked the consistency to build any real pressure. Keller would strike first before Ben Frewin coming on first change would strike in his first over of the day. The introduction of spin would pay immediate dividends as skipper Mattie Thomas would trap Dom Lock in front with Whanganui 50 for 3. Davis Mills would then strike having Canadian U19 player Akash Gill caught prior to lunch.
Taranaki would assert their dominance on the game straight after lunch as Thomas would pick up the prized wicket of opener Dom Rayner for 45 before striking twice more in quick succession to leave Whanganui reeling at 114 for 7.
John McIlraith and Chris Sharrock would combine for much needed 72 run partnership as once again the Taranaki bowlers lacked the patience required. Whanganui would go on and post a respectable 218 all out with Thomas finishing with career best figures of 7 for 59 off 26 overs.
Taranaki’s reply would get off to a rocky start as both openers Jesse Vertongen and Bailey Wisnewski were back in the shed inside 4 overs with only 23 runs on the board. That brought Josh Borrell and Shaun Sullivan to the crease, these two took the attack to the Whanganui bowlers hitting anything loose to the boundary and running hard, they would see Taranaki through to stumps with the score at 165. Borrell 75 and Sullivan 58. Low cloud and drizzle welcomed the players to the ground Sunday morning and play was delayed until 1:30pm, when play got underway the Whanganui bowlers extracted the life out of the pitch as Taranaki lost 7 wickets for just 26 runs leaving them 191 for 9, the final pair of Ben Frewin and Michael Blanks would take Taranaki to the verge of 1st innings but ultimately fall 5 runs short. Whanganui would come out and reach 75 for 2 before the stumps were pulled.
A disappointing weekend for what has been a disappointing effort in the Furlong Cup this season.