The Bay of Plenty has retained the Hawke Cup in what has been described as one of the most dramatic weekends in cricket.

The Bay side managed to come from behind to keep the Hawke Cup with a Tauranga Boys' College batsman blasting a century on debut for the Bay Development side.

The Bay of Plenty in action at the weekend.

In the finest traditions of the century old Hawke Cup, the Bay of Plenty team, which were behind the eight ball against Manawatu in the first two days play, took control of day three to retain the trophy they took from Hamilton two weeks ago.

Bay of Plenty won the toss and elected to bowl first. Led by a century from Bryn Cleaver, the visitors posted the Bay side a good sized first innings target, when they were dismissed for 275.

With the vast majority of Hawke Cup direct challenges being won on first innings points - the Bay side needed to take the first innings advantage to put one hand on the long time New Zealand Cricket minor association trophy.

While Brett Hampton top scored with 89 and Bharat Popli (59) and skipper Jono Boult (42) got good starts, the Manawatu bowlers won the battle of attrition, to remove the Bay some 19 runs short of taking first innings points.

Manawatu had the whip hand entering the final days play, being 54/2 at stumps on Saturday night. Bay of Plenty faced a huge challenge of bowling the visitors out by mid- afternoon, then chasing down the required runs for an outright win.

Enter Tony Goodin, who has be called into the Northern Knights on several occasions this season, with the Bay quick playing havoc with the Manawatu batting attack.

Five wickets told the tale of the Bay pace bowlers impact on the game, with Bay of Plenty all rounder Brett Hampton grabbing three wickets for 33 runs, as Manawatu were rolled for 188.

With just over a session remaining in the Hawke Cup decider, the Bay of Plenty target was 208 in 37 overs.

The Bay openers got away to a cracking start with the score at 103 when Peter Drysdale was adjudged lbw for 43. New Zealand under-19 representative Joe Carter continued the momentum before being caught on 77 off 78 balls.

After skipper Jono Boult went for 19 runs - Brett Hampton and Bharat Popli came together to attempt to take the home side to a come from behind win. Hampton smashed an unbeaten 41 off 35 balls with Popli caning 19 off just 12 balls – with Bay of Plenty retaining the Hawke Cup with 15 balls to spare.

Tauranga Boys' College batsmen Ben Musgrave had a dream debut for Bay of Plenty Development team in the ND Development competition.

The Tauranga Boys' youngster took charge of his side's innings to blast an unbeaten 115, as the Bay side just failed to post the necessary runs for victory. Ben followed in the footsteps of another Tauranga Boys' player in Mitch McCann who blasted 110 not out against Waikato Valley in 2008.

In the encounter at Jansen Park in Hamilton, the home side won the toss and elected to bat. Hamilton set the Bay boys a good sized target when they reached 269 all out. Jason Trembath was the best of the Bay of Plenty bowlers with three wickets.

In spite of Ben Musgrave's heroics with the bat, the Bay of Plenty side failed by just three runs to win the Basil McBurney Trophy for the second successive season.

Hawke Cup - Bay of Plenty v Manawatu Result 8/10 February 2013

Manawatu 275 (B Cleaver 128 B Small 67; Brett Hampton 3/48, Sean Davey 2/37, Jono Boult 2/48, Tony Goodin 2/61) & 188 (B Small 39, M Renwick 30; Tony Goodin 5/72, B Hampton 3/33)

Bay of Plenty 256 (Brett Hampton 89, Bharat Popli 59, Jono Boult 42; R Badenhorst 5/52, T Richards 3/46, B Small 2/42) & 209/3 (Joe Carter 77, Peter Drysdale 43, Brett Hampton 41no. Jono Boult 19, Bharat Popli 12no)

Result: Bay of Plenty won by outright victory (and retained the Hawke Cup)

ND Development Result 10 February 2013

Hamilton 269 (N Vishwanath 59, A Desai 47; Jason Trembath 3/67, Mike Jones 2/38, Henry Conway 2/40, Shane Wineti 2/59) defeated Bay of Plenty 266/8 (Ben Musgrave 115no, Alex Yates 67, Alex Gooding 37)