A1 Grade

WPHC 177 defeated Normanhurst-Warrawee 145 – Normo resumed the day at 2/6 and we instantly put them on the back foot. Jobbo and Bonga Miedler bowled superbly to completely shut Normo out of the game. They both finished with 4 wickets in the match for not many runs. They were supported well by JP and Sol, with Sol finishing with 2 wickets. The win was very important for us as the A1 Grade competition this year is very close. There are some big games coming up for us heading into Christmas that can help to get us in a good position to push for finals.

A2 Grade

WPHC 8/225 drew with Normanhurst-Warrawee 8/317 dec – Day 2, and Normo batted for a further 10 overs without losing a wicket, declaring at 8/317. We went out with a positive mindset, with the intent to knock the runs off, but Normo’s new ball bowling was good. Michael ‘Lichaaa’ Richards (58) and Matheesha ‘Tux’ Gunaratne (62) starred with the bat, with special mention to Tux, who came back strongly after retiring hurt, in a sickening incident which resulted in the casualty of his protector (RIP).

With 20 overs to go, we went in to try and score the necessary 7 an over to win, but a couple of quick wickets forced us to shut up shop. Tremendous fight was shown by James ‘Jimmy Mc’ McBrien (19*) and Luke ‘Gandis’ Herzog (15*), who batted for the last 13 overs, to see us through to a draw.

B1 Grade

WPHC 194 lost to St Ives 6/202 – St Ives started the day 1 wicket down and chasing 196 on Greenway. It was always going to be a tough task for our bowlers but we did have the attack to knock them over. We ended up going down as we never had enough runs on the board but will bounce back next week against new competition leaders Galston.

Wickets were spread around with Costo getting 2, Cam, Tis, Ashane and Calvin each got 1. Solid bowling wasn’t enough today as Justin was unfortunate to not grab a wicket and therefore had to pick up the cones at the end of the game. Well done Justin.

B2 Grade

WPHC 8/191 defeated Beecroft 189 – resuming at 0/11 Willy and Aaron added a quick 30 runs before we lost Aaron. Dinesh and Willy carried on scoring freely but we lost both of them just before the drinks break. At drinks we were 3/93 and seemingly in control of the game. Unfortunately this was the start of a mini collapse where we lost 4 wickets for 15 runs and suddenly we were 6/108 and teetering.

This brought together Anuj Dhorajiwala and Prats Datar who steadied the ship with a fine partnership of 66 runs. When Prats was out we were 7/174, but lost Ben Meikle without troubling the scorer and at 8/175 we still needed to eke out 15 runs with 2 wickets in hand. Captain Rick ‘Flair’ Turner joined Anuj at the wicket and the two of them managed to get the team over the line.

We ended the game at 8/191 off 53.2 overs. Best of the batting today Anuj Dhorajiwala 43no, Prats Datar 38, Dinesh De Silva 30, Aaron Carlini 29 and Chris Williamson 18. It was a win that was much harder than we would have liked but credit must go to Beecroft who kept chipping away all day and with a bit of luck (if they had held on to a couple of grassed chances) the game could have gone the other way. That’s 5 wins for the season and gives us good momentum going into the upcoming 1 day games over the next 2 months.

C1 Grade

WPHC 146 lost to Normanhurst Warrawee 248 – it didn’t take us long to wrap up Normanhurst’s innings as they continued on from the day 1 score of 9/244. Aaron Hawkins took the final wicket to finish with his second 5-for of the year (5/45).

We decided to mix up the batting order by giving our bowlers prime spots in the middle order, as most haven’t had a bat this year. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go to plan as wickets fell with regularity throughout the day. Rohit Ninan was the best of the batters with 46 and Semonn Oleksyn (29) & Rahul Mucherla (19) got valuable time in the middle, but the disappointing aspect was the capitulation in the last 20 overs that saw us lose 5 wickets – all main batsmen who didn’t put a high enough value on their wicket.

Hopefully the batters can learn to bat with more than 1-dimension to their game as we proceed into the one-dayers next week.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue 187 & 3/71 lost to Kissing Point 9/259 – we knew we had a light total to defend and went about challenging the opposition to score with a disciplined attack. Nikki O’Meara bowled extremely tight lines to finish with 8 maidens in his 14 overs (1/35). Matt Rashleigh bowled with fire and picked up 2/56 off 16 and each of the next bowlers kept us in the hunt with strong spells. Dave B (2/63), Gopy (2/18), Buzz (1/20) all giving their all to try and push for the win. Some late hitting got KP over the line 7 wickets down, but a strong effort from our bowlers and fielders to take the game deep was an encouraging sign.

The match descended into a farce when the opposition Captain decided to continue batting and then send us in with 20 odd overs to go. Hard hitting from Rash 20 rtno and Nikki 14, followed by the sight of Rosco Holdman coming out to bat without pads or a helmet to face their opening bowlers and smashing 2 sixes finally convinced the opposition to call the game off.

A big improvement in the bowling, but unfortunately too few runs from last week to defend. Onwards to next game to look to continue to improve.

WPHC Red 5/308 dec defeated Normanhurst Warrawee 6/298 dec. – we arrived at Foxglove South and we were greeted by an outfield that had been given a fair treatment of scarification. We knew that boundaries would be hard to come by with the outfield running a lot slower than last week. We resumed at 1/38 chasing 298 and soon found ourselves 3/52.

Zac Morris joined his father, Andrew at the crease. They knuckled down and began to build a partnership. The pair worked the score to 3/82 at drinks. After the break Andrew decided it was time to increase the run rate and took to Normo’s change bowlers. The fantastic partnership was worth 133 with Zac eventually being dismissed for 53.

Sandeep Darapuneni came to the crease and began to build another important partnership with Andrew. It was a great display of ‘playing in the V’ and using the short, straight Foxglove boundaries beautifully. The pair went on to post a 123 run partnership to pass the opposition total just 4 wickets down. Sandeep finished 53n.o. and Andrew 139 – our 456th century.

This was a great win against the competition leaders and sends a strong message to the rest of the Grade.

C3 Grade

WPHC 9/359 defeated outright Hornsby 112 & 89 – a scintillating performance by the team on a hot day at Campbell Park taking 20 wickets and winning outright (by an innings and 155 runs) against a Hornsby side who just moved up from D1 and were at the top of the ladder. The star performance in the bowling department was Ishaan Singh taking a total tally of 11 wickets in the match (3/18 in 1st inn and 8/40 in the 2nd inn) –only the 52nd time in our History that 10 or more wickets have been taken in a match. The other bowlers who were among the wickets were Dean Carlin 5 wickets in the match (4/9 in 1st inn and 1/21 in 2nd inn), Perry Waldron 3 wickets in the match (2/7 in 1st inn and 1/25 in 2nd inn) and Ben Waldron 1/13 in the 1st inn.

The day started with good tight bowling by Dean and Ben and then wickets were taken at regular intervals once the spinners came into play. At tea break, Hornsby was 8 wickets down and lost their last 2 just after the break. We enforced the follow on and the bowlers stood up to the task.

In the 2nd innings Ishaan bowled a tight line and length to leave the opponents in disarray and bowled 15 overs on the trot. Not to forget some good catching in the deep by Tarun (3 in total). The final wicket was taken by some excellent stumping by Cameron Bish with 8 overs left in the day. A great finish for the home side indeed.

A special note of thanks to our substitute fielders who helped out in the last hour of the day, Sr Flynn (Rhys Flynn’s dad) and Keeley Waldron (daughter of Perry Waldron). We now look forward to the one day format from next week.

D1 Grade

WPHC 298 defeated ARL 291 – starting the day we had the runs on the board on the small Holland Reserve. ARL from ball one played 1 day shots and it was Raunak Sethi (2/49 off 10) who took the first wicket with a catch at cover in the 5th over and we had to wait until the 15th over for the next taken by Amit Sen off Amith Ninan (2/30 off 8.5). At drinks ARL were 2/94 chasing our total of 298.

The aggression by our opposition continued and it was in the 32nd over that some sharp fielding from one of today’s stars Manny Sinnetamby running out their remaining opening bat. At tea 3/170 with WPHCCC needing some early wickets.

Well one fell straight after thanks to an alert keeper in Pratah Sinnetamby stumping the no. 5 and then a few tough chances went down. Enter Sreeni Pillamarri (3/9 off 7) who bowled some nice line and length bowling which changed the match.

A caught behind followed a few overs later by an LBW and bowled in consecutive delivers turned the game on its head to have ARL 7/220.

Raunak came back in to attack and got a caught behind and Amit Sen (1/40 off 8) after a couple of looseners removed the no 10 with a clean bowled. At 9/254 with a 44 run lead Captain Steve mixed up and ARL were still managing boundaries and hit one over for 17 which tightened things. With ARL 7 runs behind the ever reliable Amith Ninan bowled a ball wide of off stump only to see the no. 11 cane the ball in the air towards cover point but there was 14 year old Manny Sinnetamby diving to his right to take a stunning catch to win the game.

A special mention to Pratah Sinnetamby who took 3 catches, a stumping and assisted with a run out from his son. Great to see our new players take 6 wickets between them to keep us top of the table.

D2 Grade

WPHC 96 & 103 lost outright to Hornsby 199 & 0/4 – a very difficult game with us having to replace up to 10 players over both weeks. We were equal second before this match but were well and truly beaten by the fifth team Hornsby. We hit 96 runs in the first innings off 40 overs using 9 batsmen and 103 runs off 41 overs in the second innings using 8 batsmen.
At the end of our second innings both teams were on equal runs. Hornsby needed 1 run in their second innings to obtain an outright which they did by hitting 4 on the second ball.

Our best batters were Luke Christensen who hit 21 runs in the first innings and James Asquith who hit 40 runs in the second innings. The best bowlers were Nick Clegg who got 2 for 29 and Mike Kinchington 2 for 47. A big thank you to all the substitute fielders and players who assisted us including Max Harkin, Shaun Harkin, Nick Clegg, Paul & Alex Vink, Roger Friend and Chris Bloom.