Muri defends Cookie cup

Muri cricket club was successful this week in defending the Cookie Saradaka trophy against its first challenger Matavera cricket club.

Matavera won the toss and chose to field.

Muri amassed a solid total of 115 runs that was greatly assisted by some dropped catches and wayward bowling from Matavera producing 34 wides.

Muri’s top scorer was the classy Rama Taikei who produced some lovely touches to score 36, and Sonny Shepherd also hit some nice shots in the dying overs.

The always-popular Steve ‘Moko’ Kavana bowled well and gave his all to lead the Matavera attack.

In the second innings, Mike Hoff bowled his consistent deliveries and snared the vital wicket of Matavera’s Ray Raumanu with his 3rd ball of the first over.

The Patia brothers Kori and Tangi looked to score some runs and looked dangerous with some well taken boundaries that had the home supporters nervous.

However, wickets fell regularly with the Muri bowlers gaining ascendancy to restrict Matavera to 92 all out.

Alan Syme finished with figures of four wickets for two runs.

A win to Muri by 23 runs, next week is a local derby clash with Avana.