Hamilton won the toss and elected to bat on a soft looking Taupo wicket. Te Ahu Davis and Tony Goodin started well for the Bay bowling reasonably tightly and going past the bat at least once an over.
Hamilton looked to take very quick singles and did this well. Bruce Martin, who has been replaced in the Knights by Jono Boult, got a good one from Goodin and fell for nine.

At three for 62 we had a really good show to go through them, but a dropped chance and the ball going past the edge combined with excellent batting by Brook Hatwell and Lance Martin, saw them take the score to 148 before Ben Williams fooled Lance Marting with a "knuckle" ball.
The platform was set though and Hamilton powered through to 263. Tony Goodin bowled quite well for his figures of two for 33 off a straight 10 overs. Andrew Gibbs settled into good line and length to have none for 35 off eight. Davis bowled at the death and had two for 51.
Unfortunately I bowled Jason Trembarth one over too long and he got hammered in his last (the 48th) to go for 51 off nine.
Benny Williams was effective when he came on with them charging and got three for 24 off three.
So to our innings: I took 20 off the first over, but played a half volley onto my stumps in the fourth. We had 60 off the first six overs for one wicket. Scott Kuggelign, son of Chris, went for 52 off five overs including the death.
However, our quick scoring brought Bruce Martin into the attack on a gripping drying wicket. Ben Christenson got 22 off 20 balls but got lbw in Martin's first over. From there the runs tightened up.
Bharat Popli and Peter Drysdale both got starts as well, but the combination of Martin and the leg spinner Bentley kept the Bay searching for runs.
Runs became harder to come by and a couple of unfortunate dismissals really hurt us. Benny Williams got the worst ball of the match and hit it straight to square leg on the fence. Richard Rice was set and then lapped a poor ball straight to short fine leg when he could have smashed it.
Te Ahu hit three big sixes at number seven, but got knicked off by the leggie.
All in all it was a competitive performance by Hamilton. They could have played better, but a performance by the Bay that was hard fought, but can improve greatly.
In their biggest partnership the running was very good, like first class. They tapped and ran with soft hands and it surprised some of the lads the quality of the running. The good thing about that is that once you have seen it you learn from it. So for Monday's game we are looking to be fresh and have a big performance against Northland.