IMC Over 70’s World Cup

Tournament Report.

Canterbury NZ

Feb 18 - 5th of March 2026.

A World Cup at home was a great opportunity for NZ to win the whole tournament. After finishing 4th at the first over 70’s World Cup in 2024 in England we were confident we had improved and had the team to do the job. And while we were better, we could see from how many of the matches played out, that so were most of the other teams too. Overall though we got closer to making the final and made some encouraging improvements to our game. 

The last tournament saw Australia defeat England in the round robin then lose the final to them. And so it played out the same way again this time too. England champions again and Australia runners up, again. In the final Australia uncharacteristically bowled short and wide, missed a few run outs, and dropped 4 or 5 catches allowing England to amass 288/3 at a rate of 6.4 an over.  Not one of Australia’s bowlers went for less than 5/over.

Australia gave it a good nudge but fell 16 runs short reaching 273/5 in the end. The middle overs saw Australia meander along with little pressure put on the field and what looked like possible 2’s turned into slow motion 1’s. It looked from the outside they had almost given up the chase. When they lost their 5th wicket in the 31st over the required run rate was up to 10. When  it got to the last 10 overs they needed 117 runs, their current run rate was under 5, but finally they clicked into action. 

An exciting last 10 overs saw them score 101 runs but it wasn’t enough to get them over the line falling in the end 16 runs short.

 The final was played between the 2 best teams in the competition and it’s probably no coincidence that both countries have extensive and very competitive domestic competitions in that age group. By contrast the NZ team and the rest of the teams play a lot less cricket and little of it at that level of competition. 

So how do we get to the next step to make and win a final? Based on what we saw from this tournament it means having to beat both England and Australia and one of them probably twice. That would take even further improvements in all facets of performances. Bowling, fielding, batting, and tactics especially around net run rates. 

There were encouraging signs of improvement though. In our match with Australia we were 55 runs short but batted out our 45 overs and held them to 5.7 runs per over in the field. Against England with the game abandoned there was no chance to test ourselves on a wicket that seemed very helpful to the bowlers.

We had 2 players in the top 5 runs per scorers with Paul Facoory second on 375 and Cliff King fifth on 287 runs. Peter Nixon was first in batting strike rates and Roger Stachursky was third. Facoory was first equal on most 4’s scored but out of the top 10 batters Paul’s % of dot balls was the highest at 59.4%. 

Jeremy Wilson topped the bowling RPO table albeit with only 1 over and that was a maiden bowled to former West Indian test player, Larry Gomes. Definitely an under-utilised resource as he himself noted. John Cushen showed his class capturing 5 wickets from his 22 overs with a great run rate of 2.82. The 41 wickets we took over the whole tournament were shared fairly evenly among the bowlers and run outs with Roger taking 6 being our highest wicket taker.

You could look at fitness as a factor and no doubt the match fitness of the English and Australian teams was a determining factor. It was a war of attrition for most teams and quite remarkable really for us old blokes to play 7 games in 14 days and for the finalists 8 in 16 days. I take my hat off to the efforts of not only the NZ players but the rest of the teams as well.

It was a huge honour and privilege to be a part of the tournament and to wear the black uniform and play cricket with my NZ mates. I would do it all again tomorrow if I could. 

After our last game against Canada Jeremy Wilson and Evan Watkin both retired from representing the NZ over 70’s teams. Both have given great service over many years to NZ teams and to the veterans game itself. Both have continuing commitments out of the playing 11’s to the game and we look forward to catching up with them again. 

Metrics

If we look at some of the metrics and exclude all of the numbers from the final we get some interesting comparisons. 

FIELDING. If we compare the top three teams, England, Australia, and ourselves in run outs, catches, stumping’s, and wicket keeper catches we get:

BOWLING and BATTING. In other comparisons England took 44 wickets plus their 7 run outs and in their batting scored 1220 runs. Australia took 43 wickets plus 3 run outs and scored 1334 runs. NZ took 36 wickets plus 5 run outs and scored 1266 runs. 

NET RUN RATES. The other area to compare the top 3 teams is on NRR. It was, after all, what got England into the final ahead of NZ after we finished equal on the points table. Australia finished on 2.5, England 2.45, and NZ 1.19. So the scoring rate and the manner in which they restricted their opponents was a big factor in who made the final. England restricted their opponents to 819 runs, Australia 883, and NZ 1222.

In Summary the top 2 teams took more catches, dismissed more batters, squeezed their opponents harder, and mostly scored more runs than NZ and all other teams.

Chris East

NZ vs Canada 

St Leonard’s Square

3rd of March 2026.

This match had a lot riding on it result wise but was also a bit of a grudge match after the results from the first over 70’s World Cup in 2024. Back then the match with Canada was tied despite NZ scoring more runs after the DLS system was invoked after 2 overs were lost to both teams. As well as that tie NZ had an abandoned match while Canada got a result on the same day at a different venue.

Canada called the toss correctly so poor Roger was 0 and 5 after Bob Masefield had started with 2 and 0. May as well have not had the toss and just asked them to do what they wanted!

However they elected to bowl which suited us anyway as we needed a big total and then to bowl them out cheaply.

Because the weather had again played its part the matches today had all been reduced to 40 overs. NZ got off to a steady ( read that as slow) start with us at 51/1 after 14 overs when the first drinks break was taken. The drinks came out along with some messages of urgency and the second lot of 13 overs produced 79 runs.

A rejuvenated Paul Facoory could be heard from the sidelines, somewhat ironically, cajoling his batting partners over the running and things were moving along nicely until Paul was out for 61. That took him back to the top of the tournament run table, for the time being.

Jeremy Wilson smacked another 42 runs at a good clip before holing out. And just before he got out and not long after we had 2 retirements with both Scrumpy (Mike Johnston) and Tony Penny retiring hurt with hamstring issues. This time there was no repeat of the batting with runner scenarios of the Rest of the World game.

Chris East

NZ vs Canada 

St Leonard’s Square

3rd of March 2026.

This match had a lot riding on it result wise but was also a bit of a grudge match after the results from the first over 70’s World Cup in 2024. Back then the match with Canada was tied despite NZ scoring more runs after the DLS system was invoked after 2 overs were lost to both teams. As well as that tie NZ had an abandoned match while Canada got a result on the same day at a different venue.

Canada called the toss correctly so poor Roger was 0 and 5 after Bob Masefield had started with 2 and 0. May as well have not had the toss and just asked them to do what they wanted!

However they elected to bowl which suited us anyway as we needed a big total and then to bowl them out cheaply.

Because the weather had again played its part the matches today had all been reduced to 40 overs. NZ got off to a steady ( read that as slow) start with us at 51/1 after 14 overs when the first drinks break was taken. The drinks came out along with some messages of urgency and the second lot of 13 overs produced 79 runs.

A rejuvenated Paul Facoory could be heard from the sidelines, somewhat ironically, cajoling his batting partners over the running and things were moving along nicely until Paul was out for 61. That took him back to the top of the tournament run table, for the time being.

Jeremy Wilson smacked another 42 runs at a good clip before holing out. And just before he got out and not long after we had 2 retirements with both Scrumpy and Tony Penny retiring hurt with hamstring issues. This time there was no repeat of the batting with runner scenarios of the Rest of the World game.

When Jeremy got out Peter Nixon strode to the crease for effectively his first and only bat. His fabulous innings further established his all rounder status and maybe a higher batting spot in future teams as he smashed 41 not out off 25 balls.

NZ finished 232/5 off our 40 overs with the last 13 overs, the third power play, producing 102 runs.

The Canadian innings started slowly with a super economical spell from John Cushen taking 2/12 off his 6 overs.  Julian Van Dyke took over from Cush and bowled a good spell of 8 overs 2/28. He removed Farooq Kirmani for 21 but not before had had scored enough runs to overtake Paul Facoory as the tournaments leading run scorer. Maybe it’s the double o’s in their names that made them the top run scorers! Sorry Paul the bowlers couldn’t get him soon enough.

After Farooq was gone the fight seemed to go out of the Canadians. Only another double o, appropriately named R. Moore, livened things up when he smacked 2 sixes over long off. The second of which hit the pitch invader, Norm Facoory’s, nice new car.

In the end a comprehensive win to NZ and while our NRR improved a lot so did England’s after they flogged the Rest of the World team.

Canada’s MOTM was awarded to their captain Farooq Kirmani, and for NZ it was fittingly Paul Facoory.  The Angus award was doubled this time they were given to the 2 NZ players who had announced their over 70’s age group retirements. Both Jeremy Wilson and Evan Watkin retiring after many years of representing NZ on the world stage.

NZ finished second equal in the tournament on points but England advanced to the final on a NRR OF 2.45 v our 1.19. A step up from 2024’s 4th place but with a few steps still to go in 2028.

NZ 232/ 5 beat Canada’s 143/7 by 89 runs.

In the other matches USA beat India by 85 runs, England pasted the ROW by 168 runs, and England walloped Sri Lanka by 196 runs after posting 309/5.

Chris East

NZ vs Rest of the World

Mandeville Oval

Feb 27 2026

Another toss, another loss, another bowl first for NZ.

As a bowler though it’s good to get stuck in straight away so I for one don’t mind bowling first.

It was a cold and overcast day when we started. The sun made a few appearances but wasn’t out for long.

The ROW made a slow start to the match thanks to a great opening spell by John Cushen taking 2/10 in his 6 over spell. Supported at the other end by Chris’s 1/17 off 6.

But those wickets brought in D. Griffiths and P.Ganatra who would go on to post a 164 run partnership with some very impressive manoeuvring of our field and sharp singles and two’s. Prior to their entry the scoresheet looked like the start of a dot painting.

But all that changed once those 2 got going and they toyed with us at times. When they got together the run rate was 2.4 and when they were finally parted by Roger Stachursky in the the 39th over it was 4.8 an over.  Ganatra carried on attacking our bowling and lifted the run rate up to the final number of a tick under 5. But he lost his wicket in the 45 over with John Cushen coming back to finish what he started getting him out caught by Paul Facoory for 98. JC bowling a great spell of 3 for 26 off 9 overs. ROW setting NZ a target of 5 per over to win.

Facoory and King settled into their work and steadily raised the run rate to 6.0 with 90 off 15 overs and it looked like another cruisey afternoon for the non batters. But when Cliff departed in the 17th over the run rate started to decline and more drama was yet to come. Down to 5.5 after 20 overs, 5.0 after 30, and 4.8 after 37 overs.

As if the scoring rate wasn’t a problem we suddenly had Gary Rudolph needing a runner, getting one, then having him sent back to the pavilion after he ran to the other end himself, twice!!

But Paul is still there until he isn’t after he skies a shot in the 42nd over being bowled by the man who got 98 and who Paul caught to get him out. The bowler runs after it himself snatches at the catch, drops it, juggles it forward, then catches it again all while running at top speed. A healthy dose of Karma there and Paul is out for 98 as well.

Enter Tony Penny but then what the heck he gets injured  as well taking a sharp 2 runs and it was mayhem out there. Not sure if he needed a runner as well but he didn’t get one.

It’s now the start of the 44th over and we need 15 runs. Holy hell how did it come to this? Tony and Gary limp, stumble, scurry through 2 lots of legendary 2’s. A dot ball then Gary is gone. We now need 11 off 8 balls.

Enter Roger and he whacks a 4 and a single to keep the strike. Now it’s 6 off 6 with the opening bowler back on for his 9th over.  2 lots of 2 and 2 singles and we are home with 2 balls to spare. What the hell were we worried about?

ROW’s MOTM went to P. Ganatra for his 98 and 2/26 bowling. He deserved for his running alone. NZ MOTM went to John Cushen for his great bowling and the Angus award bottle of wine went to Paul Facoory.

ROW 224 for 6 off their 45 overs and NZ 225 for 5. NZ  win by 5 wickets.

In the other matches England accounted for the USA by 112 runs helping their net run rate, Canada beat Sri Lanka by 7 wickets, and Australia beat India by 9 wickets.

Chris East

NZ vs India

Bert Sutcliffe Oval

Thursday 26th February

Another toss lost and another side putting themselves in first. India electing to bat on an overcast day that was promising rain and eventually delivered it as well. The umpires taking us off the field after 21 overs with India 74/1. During the delay lunch was taken and we were off the field for about an hour and a half.

As with all the teams we’ve played so far the openers were strong batters and India made a steady start before losing their first wicket in the 13th over to Morris Dawson in his first over of a great spell of 7 overs 1/14. When he finished that spell India were 93/1 after 25 overs. 

India decided to accelerate after the 25th over and took to our bowlers and by the 32nd over they were up to 5 per over. Enter Gary Rudolph and in his first over he removed one of the destroyers. They continued to attack though until Gary removed 2 more in his 4th over and another in his 6th finishing with a great spell of 7 overs 4/35. 

India finished with 222 runs with only 6 wickets down at a good run rate of 4.9. After a short break to get ready for NZ’s innings a light drizzle started up then came and went for all of NZ’s innings.

The DLS calculators were out and we watched anxiously as the drizzle continued and the overs ticked slowly by. The towels were out and the umpires consulted but elected to carry on. The ground staff were standing by poised to cover the wickets. 

With Facoory and King batting steadily and seemingly under little duress out in the middle the first target of getting an official game after our 20th over,  with minimal loss of wickets finally arrived. But that over took a long time and the ball had to be changed before it could be completed. 

Once the 20th over was done with NZ 174 for 0 the game continued but at an accelerated pace. The final 52 runs came in the next 5 overs in a manner very similar to the ending of the Sri Lanka game. 

But this time there was a theoretical possibility of both batters getting centuries. 

During those last 5 overs India bowled 2 no balls and that threatened to upset the opportunity for both to score centuries. Paul reached his century first then did the right thing by defending and leaving just enough for Cliff to make his hundred. With the score poised on the tie and only 1 run needed Cliff had to hit a boundary or run a three. A final “alleged no ball” was swatted by Cliff to the boundary and in the 25th over he reached his 100 and in doing so hit the winning runs. 

It was sporting of India to play on in the light rain and make a match of it. Not long after the completion the rain came down properly and a full set of covers were on.

India’s MOTM was their patient opener N. Singh for his 69 runs and for NZ it was Cliff King again.  The Angus Award went to Gary Rudolph for his terrific bowling spell. 

India 222/6 off 45 overs and NZ 226/0 winning by 10 wickets. 

In the other matches the USA beat Canada by 5 wickets, Australia beat the Rest of the World by 5 wickets, and England beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets. 

Chris East

NZ vs USA 

Main Power Oval

Feb 24 20026​​​​​​​

USA won the toss and decided to bat. They made a breezy start to their innings getting to 28 after 5 overs. Unfortunately for them they also lost their first wicket in that over.

All of their 10 batters managed to get starts with no ducks at all which is unusual. Their opener and their No.10 both scored 9 but all the rest got into double figures. They eventually made 196 runs for 8 down and most bowlers got at least 1 wicket.

Bevan Guthrie was bought on as the 7th bowler and in 4 overs managed to take 2 for 12 taking out the 4th and 5th wickets who also happened to be their 2 top scorers. But he wasn’t finished there he then ran out one of the next batsmen with a direct throw hitting the stumps. There was some controversy with some claiming the bowled had dislodged a bail before the ball arrived!! But the score book says he was out.

USA ran well despite that run out but we did think they left a lot of runs out there and that 196 was an under par score. Their top scorer made 39 runs but also faced 71 dot balls. Their whole side face 148 dot balls and if you add in the 8 wickets thats 26 of their 45 overs not scored off.

NZ innings started with a string dots then a couple of blots and we were suddenly 2 down for 20 with both the Hagley Park hero’s scuttling back to the pavilion. Jeremy Wilson followed not long after but not before he had smacked a superb 6 over long on, perhaps deciding after that he couldn’t improve on that shot.

53/3 after 12 overs and there were some nerves in the dugout. But 2 cool heads in Mike Scrumpy Johnston and that man again, Bevan Guthrie, batted with discipline and calculated hitting to wear down the USA attack. From the sideline you could almost see the point where the USA team seemed to stop trying too hard in the field not being able to stop our guys from taking singles, basting the occasional 4, and several 2’s.

Once the USA spirit seemed to be subdued the runs kept accumulating in a steady manner and we reached the target on the 40th over with only the loss of 3 wickets.

Guthers finished 98 not out and Scrumpy 54 not out in what looked like a comfortable win despite the nervous start.

USA’s MOTM was their very quick opening “bowler”

Dash Sankhe who bowled 9 overs and got 2/25.

Bevan Guthrie was NZ.s MOTM and

Mike Johnston was the recipient of the Angus award.

USA 196/8 after 45 overs. NZ 200/3 in the 40th over. NZ won by 7 wickets.

In the other games Australia toppled their nemesis England chasing down 248 with only 4 down. Canada beat India by 115 runs posting 280/6 in their turn at bat, and Rest of the World beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets chasing down 188 runs.

Chris East

NZ vs Australia

St Andrew’s College

22 February 2026

Another beautiful day and another amazing venue. NZ versus the team in yellow and green. A team who has traditionally dominated the over 70’s encounters between us. Would today be our day?

NZ won the toss and put OZ into bat and as expected they batted with a mixture of patience and intent. Prepared to wait for a ball to score off then punishing it when it did arrive. Their opener, Trigg, was the first one to go but it wasn’t from one of the few hard chances he offered us. He retired with what looked like cramp but not before he’d amassed 79. Despite it being the top score of the match he still showed a great deal of patience facing 48 dot balls and running 32 singles.  That translates to just over 13 overs (or 30% of their balls faced) for only 32 runs.

When he departed we had visions of having opened up their “tail” but their 3rd man in, Smith,  ended up their second top scorer and remained not out on 61.

It took a brilliant side on throw by Evan Watkins to run out the other opener, Hardman, for 52 to gain our first genuine wicket. It was a great sight to see the zinger bails and wickets light up. Their score at that point was 144 after 31 overs. A modest 4.6 RPO which would have seen them finish around 210.

However they had other plans and steadily pushed their run rate up until finally getting to 259 at the end of their 45 overs. Along the way Tony Penny took a great catch off Scrumpy and we got 2 more wickets in the last 3 overs so we only got half of them out in total.

It was a good total to defend but the 2 NZ openers, King and Facoory got us off to a great start. 50 without loss after 10 overs, taking toll on the loose deliveries, and Australia were showing concerns about the run rate and how they were going to put the squeeze on us. Their usual chirping on the field sounding more like arguing at the time. They responded with bowling changes that helped slow us down bit by bit.

NZ made it through to the 21st over before losing our first wicket with Cliff King run out for 45. The very next over Paul Facoory was out also for 32. Jeremy Wilson and Gary Rudolph took over and got us through to the 34th over before the wickets started falling again. Jeremy pushed the rate along nicely scoring 48 off 53 balls to be our top scorer and playing some great drives all around the wicket.

Australia however had continued to squeeze our batters through those middle overs and with 10 overs to go our required RR was up to 11. With little choice left but to go after the runs and Australia bowling straight and full it was an uphill struggle that eventually cost us several wickets and saw us fall 56 runs short of the target.

We did at least last the 45 overs with only 8 down and made more than 200 runs but still it wasn’t enough.

If we learned something it was that Australia showed us the way to win a game like that and the standard that we need to aspire too.

Australia’s MOTM was Trigg and for the second time in a row Cliff King was ours. The Angus award this time went to Chris East who bowled the last 2 wickets, lighting up the zingers again, and finished with 2 for 42 of his 9 overs.

Australia 259 for 4 defeated NZ 204 for 8 by 56 runs.

In the other 3 matches, India defeated Sri Lanka by 37 runs,  the USA defeated the ROW team by 115 runs, and England dominated Canada with a 120 run victory. All winning teams batting first this time. In round 1 it was 3 of the teams batting second who won their matches.

Chris East

NZ vs Sri Lanka

Christ's College No.1 (adjacent to Hagley oval)

Friday 20th February 2026

Following the postponement of Wednesday the 18th ‘s round to Friday the 27th there were a few extra days to prepare and also a few extra days to feel nervous. But finally Canterbury’s normal warm dry days returned and so we started with round 2.

NZ won the toss and elected to bowl first. Sri Lanka came out with all guns blazing taking 11 off the 3rd over, 10 off the 4th with several more double figures overs to follow. After 8 overs without the loss of a wicket they were running at 7 an over and looking threatening. Their opener, Thavenda, was thumping 4’s all over the ground and with only 3 fielders outside the circle we were finding it difficult to contain him.

But finally in the 9th over Peter Nixon trapped the other opener LBW. Julian Van Dyk after changing ends bowled their No.3 just 2 overs later.

In an eventful 12th over by Chris East that was going for plenty a miscommunication between SL batters saw their next batter run out for 8 followed 2 balls later by an LBW and suddenly they were 4 down. The run out batsmen, Goonawaldna, we later learned was one of their most prolific and better batters so that was a big blow to their hopes of a good score.

Their run rate, which was just at under 7, started falling from then on and by the 19th over had fallen to 5.5.  The 19th was another double wicket over with Roger Stachursky having the first one stumped off a wide. It was a little bit comical with 1 umpire standing with his arms spread wide and  the other with his finger pointing skyward. A few balls later and another LBW and they were 6 down.

 Evan Watkins chimed in with a wicket in the next and 20th over. SL were now 7 down and with the previous 6 batsmen going out for 2, 8, 0, 6, 0, 0 things were looking bleak for them despite the run rate still being a healthy 5.5.

Enter stage left Johnny Premachandran and after a couple of sighters it was all guns blazing again. These 2 hammered out a 53 run partnership in just 7 overs and the run rate was back up to just under 6.  But all good things come to an end and Peter Nixon provided that by bowling Johnny for a 26 ball 36 and SL were now 8 down.

What followed was a drawn out 2 runs an over struggle until Roger ended SL’s ailing innings with 2 wickets in 2 balls.

178 all out 2 balls into the 36th over. A reasonably healthy 5 runs an over total for them but with no wickets left and NZ having 45 available our target was under 4 an over.

The NZ innings started under a darkening sky and a few spits of rain and while the sky looked dramatic it was all show and not much else and the innings progressed without interruption.

Paul Facoory and Cliff King started NZ’s run chase in a steady fashion getting a good look at the bowling. Cliff’s first 8 balls were all dots and you’d be forgiven if you  thought you were looking a Paul’s stats not Cliff’s.  By the 5th over though the run rate had climbed to the 4 an over target and the numbers rose steadily from then on. By the 10th over it was 5 and by the 20th it was over 6.

With the Southerly blowing the sounds of the Christchurch railway station across the ground it was NZ’s 2 openers who were ones steering the run away train to victory. They banged out the final 50 runs in a little over 4 overs and the 179 run target was met in 24.3 overs. Both took only 75 balls to score 78 for Paul and 81 for Cliff.

NZ’s next 2 batters in, Mike Johnson and Jeremy Wilson were reduced to extras in the scene warming their seats for the hour and 45 minutes that Paul and Cliff took to finish the act.

NZ’s run rate was 7.3 and SL’s 3.95 (their total is divided by 45 overs even though they didn’t bat all of them) so a net RR of 3.35 for NZ.

SL’s MOTM was their opener, Thavenda, with his 87 runs and NZ’s was Cliff King. The NZ team had a further award, the Angus award for the inspirational play and that was awarded to Roger Stachursky for his 4 for 33.

In the other matches Australia accounted for USA, England for India, and Canada for the Rest of the World team.

Sri Lanka 178 all out from 35.2 overs. NZ 179 for 0 from 24.5 overs. NZ won by 10 wickets.

Chris East