Kavinda Herath/Stuff
Madhur Mehera bowing for the Royal Riders against Te Anau in the PGG Wrightson Division 1 Southland club cricket final played in Invercargill on Saturday.
The Royal Riders have taken out Southland’s second-tier club cricket competition, while in the top-flight competition the Shaun Fitzgibbon show keeps marching on.
The Royal Riders took on Te Anau in the decider of the PGG Wrightson Division 1 competition on Saturday and it was the Royal Riders who were crowned champions.
The team has been a new addition to the Southland club cricket scene in recent years and is made up almost entirely of Indian migrants who are now living in Southland.
The team is aligned to the Invercargill-Old Boys club and have made noises about trying to push their way into the ILT Premier League competition in future years.
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Kavinda Herath/Stuff
Jonathan Hodson batting for Te Anau against the Royal Riders in the PGG Wrightson Division 1 club cricket final in Invercargill on Saturday.
Although the title on Saturday did not come easily as Te Anau pushed the Royal Riders to the wire in the game played in Invercargill.
Te Anau posted just 116 batting first in the 40 overs per side fixture, which was well below par.
Just Grant Taylor (27) and Jonathan Hodson (14) pushed their way into double figures, although the Royal Riders bowled an extraordinary 37 wides.
Biney Shermar picked up three wickets for the Royal Riders.
Opening the batting in reply for the Royal Riders, Charanjeet Singh Saini faced 112 balls for his 27 runs as his team struggled to chase down the target.
They were 107 for six needing just 10 runs with four wickets and 36 balls in hand at one stage.
However, Jason van de Watering claimed two wickets and Te Anau also forced a run out as the Royal Riders slumped to 111 for nine still needing six runs to win with nine balls remaining.
Gupreet Singh and Dharmesh Patel got them through to the victory with two balls to spare.
In the PGG Wrightson Division 2 final it was Riversdale who took out the honours beating Waikoikoi B in on Saturday.
The ILT Premier League competition still has two weeks of playoffs to play with Fitzgibbon posting yet another century on Saturday to push Marist past the Metro Tigers in a sudden-death semi-final.
Heading into Saturday’s semifinal Fitzgibbon had already registered three centuries to date this season and he made it No 4 on Saturday.
He scored an unbeaten 114 from 100 balls to push Marist through to a competitive 221 for seven from its 50 overs.
Much of Metro’s hopes rested on the shoulders of Jason Osborne who like Fitzgibbon has been in sublime form this season with three centuries of his own.
However, Alec Mathieson removed Osborne first ball in what was a massive blow for Metro.
Matt Burgess dug in with his 46 from 68 balls and Erin Khan chipped in with a handy 27 runs but Metro ended up falling well short being bowled out for 145.
Marist will now take on Invercargill-Old Boys to try to book a spot in the grand final the following week.
Waikoikoi has already cemented one grand final spot after it provided to be too good for Invercargill-Old Boys at Waikoikoi on Saturday.
Waikoikoi posted 235 batting first and Invercargill-Old Boys fell well short.