Round 8 (1-dayer) – 16 December 2022
Points table (as at Round 8)
A Grade Red (Cam) – 1st (50 points)
A Grade Blue (Campbell) – 8th (20 points)
B1 Red (Birdcage) – 2nd (37 points)
B1 Blue (Shomik) – 6th (22 points)
B2 (Todd) –= 1st (40 points)
C1 (Kapil) – 2nd (35 points)
C2 Red (Indranil) – =5th (27 points)
C2 Blue (Rob) – =3rd (29 points)
C3 Red (Cameron) – 8th (21 points)
C3 Blue (Tarun) – 5th (24 points)
C4 (Hiresh) – 6th (27 points)
D1 Red (Diggers) – 4th (33 points)
D1 Blue (Arun) – = 8th (19 points)
D2 (Ross S) – 1st (41 points)
Match Reports – Round 8 (1-Dayer)
A1 Grade
WPHC Red (Cam) 7/221 defeated Kenthurst 153
Hello loyal readers, one and all. Today we were back at our home ground, Berowra, up against the locals, Kenthurst. Krang wielded the axe during the week with team selections, Mao was dropped as he is a potential threat to the captaincy. Sav was also dropped due to form concerns. Krang wound back the clock and brought in Phil Wurth, back from retirement.
Phil assured him he would perform to a much higher standard than ever before, without the responsibility of being a Captain. It weighed him down in years gone by, all the committee meetings, the Captains courses, the Association Whatsapp group – it was all a distraction. Umpire Simon Moore was thrilled to see him back.
I think we won the toss and decide to bat on a green top. Phil and Horseface opened us up and this marriage made in heaven got us off to a rocketing start. Usually they are out early – but they were like Langer and Hayden out in the middle. Nothing could go wrong as we raced to 50 for no loss after 8. Until the unthinkable.
Horse hit a regular cover drive and shouted YES. Wu obliged and TRUSTED his partner, only for Horse to call NO half way down the wicket. Wu turned back, slipped on his non spike sneakers and fell short. He had been barbecued. He was a shrimp, thrown in such aggression, the gas penetrated his bones. Searing temperature. It was the sickest run out I’ve ever seen. I felt physically ill when Wu walked off. Sick. Disgusted. Horse face haunched over in the middle of wicket, he had no admirers. It was ugly as the feed on Billy Gaunt’s Hinge profile. Phil made 26.
Anyway it brought Jamakin to the crease and him and Horse continued to go on our merry way. Jamakin looked strong with some lovely shot making, Horse looked at home as the solid opener. Unfortunately Jamakin fell as his innings was getting going, he made 30 odd. Captain Krang decided it was best if Assman was promoted to 4 over Billy Gaunt and boy wasn’t Billy narky about it.
Assman, fresh off a match winning ton last game, seemingly not fit to go ahead of Billy. He pleaded with Krang to go first. He was denied.
Billy’s tantrum didn’t last long because Horse was dismissed just a few balls later. 3/90 and Billy was warned to not be boring, to not hit every ball to the fielder and to actually score some runs today. He obliged – and threw in a few ramps to really stick it to the haters. His innings was probably the best of the year. He was dismissed for 40 odd.
Down the other end, the form batsman of the competition was going to work. A couple of ridiculous straight drives combined with some subcontinental sweeps off fast bowlers had Lichaaa comparing Assman to the great S J Jayasuria. Our Travis Head, he brought up yet another 50 before he was caught in deep looking to accelerate. Him and Billy has got us to 5/180 with 5 overs left.
Tom Hando entered the arena and really got us a strong score. A quick fire 20 odd off about 6 balls had the crowd cheering. The crowd of Phil and Mary Hando were on their feet, fresh with a bottle of Cab Sav, screaming for their favourite Hando. Lichaa, Gas and Tiz did their cartel best. We made about circa 225.
Kenthurst have a reputation to be full of mouth but nothing had prepared us for the bowling innings.
We didn’t strike early, despite some serious heat from Jack Hando, channeling his inner Brett Lee in his Berowra Oval home ground debut. Lichaaa had the ball on a string but couldn’t find the edge. Kenthurst were hanging in there and boy did they remind us of it.
Huge sledging of Captain Krang in the deep point boundary ignited everyone’s fury, especially when they called him pregnant. Gas, Krang, Wu, Lichaaa and Horse all bowled their hearts out in the back 9. Gas picked up 4, Krang 2 and Preeds a couple too. Lichaa had the run out of the century, hitting one stump side on from the deep cover boundary. He truly is unbelievable.
Another unbelievable is James “Ross” Makin, who today became our no 1 spinner. 1 over of pure brilliance and it puts him ahead of any other options we currently have available. Regardless, I can’t wait to see what is unearthed next year with Jamaican and his spin, stay tuned because I know big things are a coming.
I’m very tired so you’ll have to make up the rest in your own minds. We won easily and we enter the Christmas break on top of the ladder. Happy holidays to all.
WPHC Blue (Campbell) 177 defeated St Ives 8/160
Now I am writing this report post Crowie at about 4am, again with more foundations layed but still without any luck tonight. I’m sure Tanay and Shaan once again found the spot at the argyle though. So apologies in advance for anything said, but I’m sure Rosco will make this sound coherent when he wakes up in an hours time to edit/post the match reports.
It has been a month of losing outright, so we were excited to play a one-dayer, meaning we couldn’t actually lose outright this weekend. Last game before the Christmas break and we were at Glenorie today playing St Ives. First thing established was that the only thing good at Glenorie was the bakery. Next was that we had won the toss for the second game in a row (little wins) and elected to bat.
Rochow and new team member James opened up.
Rochow, Campbell and Avi managed starts of 20/30 odd. Before Harry top scored again with another 50 with some beautiful shots. It’s actually phenomenal the amount of talent a single family can have. I’ll be spewing if A1’s take another hando off me then make me play against them again though.
As we got to the end of the innings the instructions were to swing your tits off and as a result we ended up with 177 off the 35 overs. A very defendable target and probably our best batting performance this year.
Now onto the bowling and we opened with the family pairing of Shando and Hhando who provided us with some good pace early and movement. Before moving onto Dean, Tinay, KT and Avi who kept it nice and tight through the middle overs, picking up a few wickets as we went along. Harry taking about 3 catches because he can’t do anything wrong right now.
With 7 overs to go they needed a run a ball as Jedwards came on and proceeded to be hit for 15 off his first over. Yet we backed him and Scotty Boland like he took a 3 wicket maiden. One of the great comebacks since Steven Bradbury brought us right back into the game. Also I hope your Christmas party went well tonight mate. Just make sure you only mention the second over to members of the other gender.
From there Tinay and Harry closed it out with some beautiful death bowling and at the end of their 35 overs, St Ives were 8/160. Should’ve been 9fa if your captain could catch (sorry Haz). But never the less a win to WPHCCC by 17 runs. It’s a nice feeling to be in the winners column again. Hopefully we can continue this into the New Year.
I have had a another rumbo and can now see the sun rising (good morning Ross) so I think it’s time for bed. But I wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas and new years break and look forward to cricket and seeing you all again in 2023.
B1 Grade
WPHC Blue (Shomik) 56 lost to Hornsby x/60
I will keep this report short and sweet because, at the end of the play, there were only 34 overs bowled…TOTAL.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, we had a magnificent collapse and could only manage 56 runs in 29 overs.
Thinking we had any chance of defending, that total was blown out of the water as Hornsby completed their chase in 5 overs.
Let’s hope a Christmas break will bring us back into form next year
WPHC Red (Birdcage) 4/256 defeated ARL
Here at WPHCCC we are all about equality. Apparently not Billy Gaunt. After last weeks revelation we thought that caucasians were off limits for Grand wizard Bill, not club legend Simon Friend.
Now to the cricket. Captain dickhead of course lost the toss but time would soon show this was an excellent toss to lose. DJ ‘the petrol bowser’ Garrett put his one day batting hat on and despatched the ball to all parts.
Getting himself to 38 in absolutely no time. Brent ‘Rolf Harris’ Larkham then joined Ryan ‘the don’ Birdcage at the crease and continued to lift the run rate. It was safe to say that at 1/123 after 18 Asquith Rugby League were probably regretting putting us in to bat. They should probably stick to rugby league. This is the highest score at drinks for a one-dayer in the Club’s history (source Ross Anderson).
Brent promptly nicked off 1 ball after drinks which brought a promoted Ray ‘the master blaster’ Khamis to the crease. Thanks to master negotiator Ross Anderson, Ray had cashed in on a whopping 15% off at Kingsgrove and was ready to wield his brand new GM. What proceeded was a masterful display of power hitting, which meant cage could selfishly push the singles and preserve his disgusting average.
Ray departed with a 26 ball 45 which included 6 4s and a 6. Money well spent on the new bat.
Zac then came and went trying to push the run rate along, which brought Nick ‘I love running twos’ Duck to the crease. Buckets Duck then played the best supporting innings the club has ever seen (source Ross Anderson).
The main event of the innings however was Ryan ‘the don’ Birdcage compiling the Clubs 1027291811618th hundred. Cage batted with patience, power and determination to bring up his maiden West Penno Hundred on the last ball of the innings. Well done the cage.
We finished on 4/256, big total.
Unfortunately, the cage show wasn’t over but I’m sure by the time this match report goes live everyone would have gotten a full recap.
ARL were never going to get close, Cage took 4, diggers took 2, Cammos took 2, rob took 2.
We finish the season as winners with our only loss for the year being against Shomik and his team of bandits. Keen to rip in in 2023 and win back the sheep station cub which is so rightfully ours.
From our family to yours, have a safe and merry Christmas. (Except for Kamran ‘club match fixer’ Akmal’
Other news:
- Billy Garrett made his first appearance since being shunned from the team. Ray and Billy broke bread and all is good. (Still a suspect bloke, not fully convinced)
- Abe tried to hit on grace
- Ray hit a 6 into the umpires car which apparently makes our whole team ‘tossers’
A note for all our readers, our match reports are being heavily redacted by Ross ‘head of club propaganda’ Anderson so if you would like the full story on Billy ‘grandwizard’ Gaunt, just ask.
Sunday game for C1 Grade 18th December2022
B2 Grade
WPHC (Todd) 6/161 defeated Castle Hill 151
We rocked up to the final game of the season at the home of cricket, Greenway. We had a few outs with holidays and injury’s including two of our star batsmen – Rick Turner and Jude Boyle from last week. However, we welcomed Dinesh De Silva and Vedant Virmani into the side. We’d lose the toss and were sent in by Castle Hill. Michael “Volc” banner looked solid and set to continue his recent run of form however unfortunately wickets we’d continuously fall at the other end and we were 5/71.
Birdcage rocked up the Greenway to make sure we knew he got a century yesterday as we had not been at the Club. Congratulations Birdcage. Birdcage nervously watched on as there looked a chance he’d be upstaged by Volc and he’d become the talk of the club…
Jack Hutchinson would join Volc out at the crease and the two would bat beautifully, putting away the bad balls and running superbly between the wickets to compile 84 run 6th wicket partnership. There running included many 3s and also they ran a 4! And at one stage it look like Jack was going to kill Volc, pushing him hard between the wickets. Jack fell in the final over trying to get quick late runs for 36 whilst Volc would finish 81* (3 back to back 50s), finishing the year in fine form.
We’d head out to bowl confident of defending 161, however a quick start from Castle Hill (1/67 off 10) had us nervous. Paul Vink (2/31) bowled superbly, bowling out his 7, and claimed the two big scalps of their openers (including his bunny Mick Hungerford – got him out 4 times this year!).
Craig “Hutcho Senior” Hutchinson would tighten things up bowling 7 overs for only 14 runs! Xander Vink (1/23) bowled very nicely in tandem with Hutcho Senior claiming the much needed breakthrough with the scores at 3/115 off 27 – a real tight one ensued!
Castle Hill would send out their lower order hitter who’d be BBQ’d for a diamond duck thanks to a brilliant throw from Connor Hindmarch from the deep.
The skipper, Todd Hutchinson (2/38) would bring himself back and after copping some tap early on would claim 2 quick wickets and Castle Hill would be 6/144 with 3 overs to go.
Chris “Willy” Williamson (0/10) was brought into the action with his wife and mother in law admiring a buttocks which is well regarded around the Club and would bowl very tightly. After starring with the ball and looking the pick of the bowler Jack Hutchinson would be brought on for the final over and would claim 3/1 off it, with a fourth wicket falling thanks to a direct hit runout… 4/1 off the final over when Castle Hill required 13 runs for victory.
An absolutely outstanding end to what has been a good start to the season!
C1 Grade
WPHC (Kapil) 135 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee 9/136
Was a very close game against Normanhurst. We lost the toss and they opted to bowl.
A good platform was set by Matt and Tajas. Raj and Mulri helped score quick runs in style. We ended the innings with 135.
Anand took a screamer of a catch, with great agility, speed and style.
Sid and Marino bowled very well getting a few wickets each. There was a good addition of Tejus also putting the pressure back on Normanhurst.
The game was very close in the end. They had 3 wickets left for only 20 runs, we managed to get them 9 down defending 2 runs. Normanhurst pulled away in the end, winning the game.
C2 Grade
WPHC Red (Indranil) 9/151 lost to Castle Hill 6/174
Last 2 match reports had so much humor and anecdotes, so this weekend it will be a dull one in comparison.
First of all Wish all patrons, players, club enthusiasts and administrators – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !!
Well that’s all the positive comment to make in this report.
Not exactly – there was 2 x U15 juniors who made their debut in this Seniors team and both Aayush and Mayher Singh showed lots of promise in the years to come. Mayher getting 3 wickets and Aayush was unlucky to not get a break through.
Many missed chances and just being unlucky pushed the Castle Hill run rate more than 5+ over. But cannot miss mentioning some fielding display – great outfield catch by Aayush and the keeper taking 2 stumpings and 2 catches.
Josh Elliott helping out from B2 team was unlucky not to get a hat trick in the last over, but seemed a bit too late when the wickets taken.
The team was confident to chase down the total set by Castle Hill and good opening partnership between Aayush 29 and Vishnu 24 created the platform. Cam Bliss made his first 50+ score this season and batting down the order is clicking. A promise made by his mom that he does deserve a beer at home, well played Cam. We all are still waiting for the beer invite. Sic..Sic..
After R8 – 3 W 3 L 2 D – looks like an even-stevens for the team. If you think about it, not such a bad performance when you have used more than 25 players overall till Round 8. Look forward to the 4 x one day rounds and getting 11 players will be a challenge first up. Stay well friends!!
WPHC Blue (Rob) 8/141 lost to Hornsby 5/246
Dural Park looked and felt more like the MCG in June today as the “Mighty C2 Blues” rocked up to perhaps the quickest ground in the association. Shockingly, most of us arrived at the usual deadline of 12:30pm. Was this going to be a good day for us? No it wasn’t and in fact it was probably the only thing that went right was Rob winning the toss.
Electing to field on a dusty Dural Park, the opening overs were marred by Ambulances driving back and forth Quarry Road, probably just in case to see us choke. Reyhan Ahmed and Ben Burrows opened the bowling as ever and Hornsby were quick to score. It felt as if both openers had turned into prime Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer as the score quickly ran to 0-50 off 8 or so overs. Mudi and Luke were brought on first change with the change working as the first wicket fell, a lovely sliding catch at cover by Alistair Fullerton bringing in the first wicket.
The second wicket partnership would be more of the same for the Blues, edges, uppish shots and half chances would allow Hornsby to race to 1-124 at the drinks break. It would be more of the same at the drinks break until the C2’s legend himself, Buzz Burrows would strike again.
Another wicket would fall a few overs later before a controversial stumping was given not out. Ben Burrows would take a magnificent run out in the closing overs. It was something you’d see out of the Big Bash, Ben bowls, hit straight back into the hand onto the stumps, a pretty unfortunate way to get out. Hornsby would finish up 5-246, no dramas just go 8/9 an over, right?
The batting started as miserably as the bowling as Alistair and Kamran would go out to open. Kamran would fall early in the third over while his replacement Will would begin to compile a steady partnership with Alistair. Alistair would soon fall, 2-24 not looking good. Aden would come and go getting bowled for a duck. They were on a hat trick.
Zia would support Will slowly before he too would fall several overs later for 3. 4-39, it wasn’t looking too good.
Out came Luke “Junior” Fullerton, who began to play some lovely shots taking strike from Will for about 3 overs before he departed for 17. Reyhan would also come and go, a niggling hamstring hampering his day before falling for 2. 6-63 after about 15 overs. Not fun to score, not fun to watch and not fun to bat. Ben Burrows would join Will in what felt like the North Pole and the two would begin to work nicely together as Ben would support Will who was scoring steadily. Ben would depart after drinks for 2. Mudi came in and played in tandem with Will as the runs would tick over.
A highest partnership of 30 for the Blues would be because of Will and Mudi, the former now inching towards 50. 7-114 after 26. At least the tail stuck around! Will would get his 50 with a pull shot reaching Fine Leg for a single, he would soon be caught by a juggling act, even the best slips fieldsman would marvel at.
Buzz and Mudi rounded out the day slowly reaching 8-141. A poor showing from the Blues and while there were few positives, the boys knew they could do better.
Onwards to the New Year and the second half of the season as the “Mighty Blues” look to push for the title!
C3 Grade
WPHC Blue (Tarun) 137 lost to Berowra 7/138
After last week’s dull affair that demonstrated why our friends ask us why we play cricket, it was nice to look at the fixture and see a format where a result was a certainty.
It seems Lachlan and, temporary opening batsman, Jack didn’t get the memo as they got the score to 0-15 off 10, leaving Tarun questioning his decision to bat and in fact giving Jack a bat at all. However he was vindicated after Mao Mao’s sub-one-minute drinks run amazingly resulted in the boys upping the scoring rates by placing pressure on the field with quick running.
What was more surprising than Mao Mao getting off his seat for once was the fact the faster tempo didn’t end in a run out between the two at the crease as both are notoriously dodgy runners between the wickets. At drinks the score was 0-51.
The conditions weren’t ideal for batting but both the openers protected their wicket and ran well between the sporadic boundaries, building a nice partnership. With the score at 82, Cam Green bowling spin, 2 metre Peter O’Brien proved to be the partnership breaker as Lachlan chipped one to cover – the first time he has been dismissed by a bowler this season (only being dropped 10 times in between the last dismissal that wasn’t a runout). Jay was unable to continue from the last game being bowled by a seed for 1 then Tarun followed suit being nicked off for a golden duck, making that two ducks in a row (sorry skip).
With wickets falling fast around him Jack had to step up and be the anchor of the innings, taking on the bowlers and making Berowra go fetch a couple of balls from the bush.
Peter supported nicely looking for quick runs but Jack was looking for a maiden 50 and the red ink to protect his average (as usual). Never fear though because as Jack was on 49 Louis pulled out the camera and the curse struck again and Jack chipped one straight to cover which the rest of the boys seemed to enjoy. Shaq (7*), Michael (7) and Peter (27*) chased runs and got us up to a defendable 137.
In the field the boys were full of energy and Jack’s chat was a welcome return, after all he does have a degree in sledging and woeful chat.
With the ball, Jay was unlucky to have two catches put down early – one fast chance to my right in the slips when I was daydreaming and another down at square leg by Robbie Farah’s long lost son, Isaac. The breakthrough came with a nick to the hands of Jack, then two more edges were taken by Jack again off Lachie’s bowling. One more before drinks from young Isaac’s worst ball of the day had us in the box seat at 4-51 at the 17 over mark.
After drinks, Berowra’s danger man tapped me around hitting me for 2 big sixes, prompting Pat to call him a “leg side hack”, further angering him so he added one more six to my total.
Jack who had the hot hands today added a wicket through Shaq’s sheer brilliance in the slips, rivalling Matt Short’s hanger against the Thunder (who coincidentally is the same age as Thunder scored runs). I was joined in the attack by Pat after Jack was bulldozed by the tallest bloke I’ve ever met by a tackle which should’ve seen him on report.
However dropped catches, the story of our day let us down with two more crucial chances going down as Pat added another wicket but unfortunately it was too little too late…Time for a well-deserved break, Merry Christmas!
WPHC Red (Cameron) 5/214 defeated Kissing Point 177
A nice cool day for cricket on the final round before the Christmas break. WPH won the toss and elected to bat on what was a fast outfield at Headen Park, Thornleigh.
Openers Vinod and Cameron put on 27 before Vinod was caught by a smart catch behind the stumps after a thick edge. A good start to the innings help propel the scoring along with us reaching 100 in the 20th over. Good scores from Cameron (35), Hari Shanker (41), Brent Van Wyk (52) scoring our first half century of the year with his family watching. Finishing off the innings was a smart 33 from Chetan Chandrasaker with our total reaching 5/214.
Today we were missing 3 of our main bowlers but the boys dug deep and put in a solid performance with the ball. The star was definitely Happy Rana who took his first 5 wicket hall finishing with 5/21 off 7 overs with 3 bowled and 2 caught behind by Hari Shanker.
The pleasing thing today was that everyone contributed. It was about small partnerships that developed, backing our bowlers and fielding with desperation throughout the innings.
Congratulations Team – you played well and I only hope that this projects the momentum forward when we return after the break.
C4 Grade
WPHC (Hiresh) 129 lost to Mt Colah TBA
Gusty winds, cloudy skies, and bushy surroundings set up what was to be an enthralling final fixture before the start of the Christmas holidays between our boys in white and blue, and Mount Colah.
Despite losing his 8th toss of the season, lady luck seemed to be on the side of West Penno captain Hiresh, as Mount Colah opted to take to the field, perfectly fitting into the skippers’ plan.
After discussions about the game plan, keeping in mind the last battle between West Penno and Mt Colah, the usual opening pair of Hiresh and Sparsh went out into the middle looking to get things up and running for West Penno. Sparsh, looking to get his 3rd half-century in a row, continued his great form with the bat, after scoring 35 runs of 52 deliveries, with captain Hiresh scoring only 2 off 14 after being caught by in the field.
Following batsmen Meet and Ratul managed to score a decent 10 and 11 respectively, as fill-in player Samarth only fared 2 runs in his first game in over 2 years. Next batsman, Pankaj, went out looking to get the cogs turning for West Penno, and made a fantastic 30* runs off only 28 deliveries, with subsequent batsmen Mahesh, Jerry, Shankar, and Bala scoring 5, 3,9 and 12* respectively, keeping the West Penno score to respectable 129.
Taking to the field, our boys started off in good spirits, as opening bowlers Sparsh and Jerry looked to put early pressure onto the batsmen. With the boundaries short, and the bowlers quick, Hiresh’s fielding setup disabled the opening batsmen from hitting big, restricting the opposition to quick singles and doubles. With his parents and brother watching from the carpark, Sparsh’s fantastic bowling deservedly earned him the wicket of opening batsman, M. Waite, with an absolute ripper of a delivery knocking over the middle stump.
As the next batsman walked to the crease, a left-hander, our experience from the last game against Mt Colah came in good time, with Hiresh meticulously setting up his field to accommodate for the lefty. After continuous pressure from the bowlers to the left hander, it was once again Sparsh who pulled through for the wicket, sending the bails flying to Row Z.
But now would be the real test for our boys, with their danger man coming into bat after scoring an astounding 116 runs in the previous week. While our boys were aware of the threat that the batsman carried, we remained optimistic that we could successfully defend our score.
With the line, “once we get this guy out, the game is ours” ringing around the field, new bowler Bala came into the attack. Reminiscent of Bhuvneshwar Kumar with a new ball, Bala’s deliveries were swinging all over the place, making it tough for the batsmen to play him. With the boundaries being surrounded by a forest, a six was hit by the Mt Colah danger man, which, after a thorough search, spelled the end for that particular cricket ball, forcing the introduction of a semi-used ball to come into play.
Bala’s fantastic spell continued after a brilliant catch was taken by Shankar, which would ultimately be the last wicket for West Penno.
Following bowlers Meet and Ratul were unable to break the partnership between the batsmen, with both batsmen putting up commendable performances to cap off what can be described as a deserved win for the home side, ending our 3-game win streak before the Christmas holidays.
D1 Grade
WPHC Red (Diggers) Vs St Ives Wahroonga
A good win last match saw us in 4th place by 9 points and set up a good tussle with 3rd placed St Ives.
A late change of ground for our alleged home game from Holland Reserve to Bannockburn Oval, 5 minutes from wasn’t ideal but hey, we still got to play cricket so whatever.
Lost the toss and found ourselves bowling first.
Connor, Parin and Disco bowled really well as usual, keeping Snives runs down but it wasn’t until the over before drinks before Disco got the breakthrough.
1/59 at drinks soon became 3/69 with Marcus picking up a couple before the Snives batters put their heads down and with a couple of good partnerships, got the score to 5/170 at the end of the 35 overs.
Marcus finished with 3 wickets and Disco and Luke 1 each.
Diggers and Quan made a reasonable start, putting on 33 for the first wicket before a collapse saw as at 4/42 after 14 overs.
Great Marcus and Connor put a stop to the downhill slide and batted very sensibly combining great defence, good stroke play and even better running to give us a sniff of victory. With our newest cheerleaders, Maddie and Ash, their respective girlfriends, cheering them on, Marcus and Connor looked like pulling off a, dare I say it, a Christmas miracle.
Alas, it was not to be. Marcus holed out for 35, a partnership of 88 and we just couldn’t quite get there.
Connor finished with 67 and the team on 8/152, an 18 run loss.
A match once again played in great spirit and still showing that we should be somewhere thereabouts come finals time.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the D1 Red team to you all.
WPHC Blue (Arun) 204 lost to ARL 3/207
Finally a game at Campbell Park and finally our chance to take a leap in the table utilising the lightning quick conditions. Things looked promising till the innings break and then there was not much to talk about. However……
First century for WPHC for skipper Arun Chaudhuri (our 510th century)!!!
Being sent in to bat first on a very quick Campbell Park, we knew that we had a put in a decent score to be able to defend and capitalise on the loose balls. Arun went in with a mindset which we are very well used to and soon enough we were cruising at 6 odd runs an over with the ball touching every corner of Campbell via Arun’s sublime touch. As Amith mentioned in the group chat later that he would not have had it any other way. This had to be one of the best moments in our teams batting line-up which has struggled this season to live up to the expectations.
With able support from our middle order in Chintan, Amith & Sahil, Arun’s knock of 100 took us to a defendable total of 203 but we knew we had to defend well.
Unfortunately that was not to be.
Too many dropped chances and short of a length deliveries saw the Asquith opening pair bolting to an unbeaten 109 run partnership within the drinks break and we could not come back from their position. Pick of the bowlers was Sahil who tried to slow down the pace of the game and it did work.
Lots of retrospection to be done over the next 3 weeks till we reconvene in the New Year. Fielding remains our focus areas as the opposition has constantly managed to sneak in easy runs against us.
Here’s to a wonderful holiday season from our team to yours as we remain hopeful to come back strong in the second half of the season.
D2 Grade
WPHC (Ross S) 9/107 lost to Kenthurst 7/108
For some unknown reason we played Kenthurst again after beating them last round.
With first place up for grabs, and an opportunity to put 2 wins between us and 3rd place Kenthurst, we were confident. Ross won a second toss in a row and had no hesitation in batting against a Kenthurst side with only 9 players…
A change to the batting order to give everyone an opportunity this game…
Ross and Jake opened the batting together for the first time in several seasons hoping to get off to a good start. The Kenthurst bowling was really accurate and deceptive with Jake being dismissed in the second over with one that kept really low…not a good start.
Sach joined Ross and the scoring moved along at a steady rate, until Sach was caught and bowled for 15. 2/35 after 10….
Some changes to the batting order did not work as planned with Ram and Rahul departing in quick succession under accurate bowling by Kenthurst. WPH 4/40 after 16 overs…Muthindra joined Ross, and at the drinks break 4-50.
After the break we looked to accelerate the scoring, but with the score at 61 in the 21st over we lost Ross LBW for what ended up being our top score, a patient 23….Muthindra was then unfortunately run out soon after for 15 with both he and Roger ending up at one end.
With not enough runs on the board at 7/84 and only a handful of overs left instructions were clear move it along…..Roger 11, Gihan 10, and Henry no got us to a final total of 107….not ideal on a very fast ground, but Credit to the Kenthurst bowlers and fielding team with only 9 fielders.
Taking to the field we were still confident we could defend that total with Kenthurst 2 batters short. Ram and Mridal started off really well. Ram with a wicket 4th ball, and Mridal bowling their best batsmen (who scored 95 no last week) in his second over. Another wicket to Mridal and tight bowling by Ram had Kenthurst 3-16 after 7 overs. We were right on top.
Unfortunately we let things slip a little over the next 10 overs, a couple of dropped catches and some balls landing between fielders saw a partnership of 40.
Rahul was then thrown the ball, and snared a wicket with his 4th ball, caught by Ross behind with his left glove from a glance down the leg side. He then snared another quick wicket with a great catch in slips by Henry….Sach then joined in with a great caught and bowled to dismiss Kenthurst’s top scorer Kenthurst 6-83….
With a lot of luck Kenthurst crept closer to our score. We needed 2 wickets, Kenthurst 6 runs with 4 overs left. The breakthrough came when Rahul took a good catch at mid-wicket off Mridal. 7/102
A few sundries and edges had Kenthurst needing just 2 runs to win…..Henry thrown the ball…in the 33rd over. A great over 5 dots, fielders in to stop the single. Last ball of the over, Kenthurst batsman takes an almighty swing, ball pops straight up …we all stop anticipating the winning catch, but…..the ball goes down….Kenthurst batsman scurry through for the tieing run.
Frustrated fielder hurls the ball wide for an overthrow…..game lost……heads down, but we did not bat well today and lost to a team that was simply better on the day.
We now go into the new year, probably in 2nd place on the table, but we’ll positioned for a run into the semis.