Buttar-Scurr stars in Southland first innings victory
Southland opened its 2024-2025 campaign against Mid Canterbury in the two-day fixture at Queens Park in Invercargill.
A Blake Buttar-Scurr century and a Sithum Niluminda five-for has lifted Southland to a first innings southern zone Hawke Cup cricket victory at the weekend.
Southland opened its 2024-2025 campaign against Mid Canterbury in the two-day fixture at Queens Park in Invercargill.
Mid Canterbury won the toss and sent Southland in to bat first on Saturday. The move looked to be a good one with Southland’s top four batsmen all falling for single figures to be 29 for four.
But that was before Buttar-Scurr went about playing the lead role in digging Southland out of a hole.
He racked up an unbeaten 106 from 165 balls batting at five and found the support he was after at the other end in captain Jason Osborne.
Osborne’s 39 from 92 balls - in the context of the match - was significant.
Buttar-Scurr’s heroics - along with Osborne’s support - lifted Southland to a first innings total of 202 with just three players reaching double figures.
Buttar-Scurr’s special day didn’t end with the bat as he quickly went about making an impact with the ball as well.
He took a couple of early wickets and finished with three all up as Mid Canterbury was bowled out for 162 - 43 runs short of nabbing the first innings points.
It was Buttar-Scurr’s new-ball partner Sithum Niluminda who cleaned up the Mid Canterbury tail in an important spell.
Niluminda finished with five for 46 from 11.2 overs has he again hammered home his importance in the Southland setup.
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Southland then went about building a decent second innings lead thanks mainly to half centuries to Chris Case (54 from 145 balls) and Nick Brown (84 from 112 balls).
It meant Southland was eventually able to declare on 237 for eight setting Mid Canterbury 272 runs to grab an outright win.
Southland ended up with 36 overs to try bowl Mid Canterbury out and claim outright points.
Mid Canterbury finished the match 174 for six meaning Southland had to settle for first innings points.
Spinner Jed Mockford finished with three wickets, with fellow spinner Sam Nicholson grabbed two.
Southland’s next game is back at Queens Park, where they will take on North Otago on the 1st-2nd February.