Round two of the BPL was underway at Ivor Marsden Memorial Park as the Western Power and the Coastal Marlins were both looking for their second victory of the BPL. Both teams were needing a victory to keep their finals hopes alive.
Coastal Marlins won the toss and sent the Power into bat, with rain looming and strong winds coming across the ground, the weather was looking like it was going to be a factor in the match. Runs were flowing early for the Power, but with most not coming off the bat as the sundries started to build up. Openers Jake Cross and Bryn Llewellyn were looking they were going to build a promising partnership together until an amazing over by Lloyd Aspin, which got the two openers and also captain Harrison Wood out. This over flipped the early momentum around as the Power were going at near 9 an over run-rate. Stephan Muller and Dylan McLachlan were building a good partnership together as they both got off to good starts. McLachlan hit some huge sixers and was targeting Marlins spinner, O’Connel, until Jamie Eccles turned the game on its head with the wickets of Muller for 16 and McLachlan for 19. Some crucial late wickets by Adam Sommerville and a great bit of fielding by captain Zac Keune, stopped a late charge by the Power, as it was a recurring theme throughout the Power’s innings, of losing multiple wickets at once, which in the end affected the Power overall total, as they were bowled out for only 121.
It was conserative start for the Marlins, as they were only needing 122 runs for victory. The Power broke through early with wicket of Zac Keune, as the power opted to bowl spinner, Bryn Llewellyn who got 1-3 in his first two overs in the powerplay. Kris Glass and Joshua Mathews created a good partnership together and got the Marlins back to the required run-rate. Mathews hit some huge sixers and Glass hit some important boundaries to keep the Marlins push for Victory. Donal Whyte wasn’t going down without a fight, he picked up the two important wickets of Mathews and Corey Hunter. Jamie Eccles got an unlucky diamond duck as he was runout after a direct by Bryn Llewellyn. All of the sudden the Marlins were 5 wickets down and needing 39 runs with 7 overs remaining. Lloyd Aspin and Adam Sommerville were looking like they would be the ones to bring the Marlins home with a game saving 37 run partnership. Whyte once again broke through with the wicket of Sommerville for 11, but it was to late as the next ball the Marlins reached the total with 17 balls remaining and Lloyd Aspin top scored with 37* of 21 deliveries to help the Marlins get their second victory of the BPL.
