Round 11 (1-dayer) – 21 January 2023
Points Table (as at Round 11)
A Grade (Cam) – 2nd (60 points)
A2 Grade (Campbell) – 3rd (25 points)
B1 Red (Birdcage) – 2nd (42 points)
B1 Blue (Shomik) – 6th (31 points)
B2 (Todd) – =1st (50 points)
C1 (Kapil) – 6th (37 points)
C2 Red (Indranil) – 6th (37 points)
C2 Blue (Rob) – 4th (40 points)
C3 Red (Cameron) – 4th (39 points)
C3 Blue (Tarun) – 6th (32 points)
C4 (Hiresh) – 5th (40 points)
D1 Red (Diggers) – 4th (38 points)
D1 Blue (Arun) – 9th (29 points)
D2 (Ross S) – 4th (51 points)
Match Reports – Round 11 (1-Dayer)
A1 Grade
WPHC Red (Cam) 7/113 lost to Berowra White 7/114
Look I was inundated with messages and emails on Sundee and Mondee requesting a match report from last week – I chose to ignore all of you. But I am back this week to let you relive the epic contest between Berowra White and YOUR WPHCCCCC.
A very good morning as well to the Berowra White captain who I know is a regular visitor of this column. Your bus buddy told me you read this each and every week – thank you for your loyalty. The website hits – and therefore sponsorship optimisation – relies heavily on this piece every week. Please like comment and subscribe.
We were back at Parklands today, the rain during the week left a pitch that seemed to have a bit in it at first sight. Captain Club Captain Cam Crang Cbrien wielded the axe this week. Jamakin, Wu and the Handos were all dropped, Heidegger was brought in on a short term contract. Jed Corbett was also recalled because we like him more than any other option we have in the lower grades.
It would have been a good toss to win. Cam loss the toss and we were batting. Gas brought everyone into the rooms, except Cam who was swooning the umpires. Gas told us he wanted 200, that he wanted a boundary an over in the final 17 and that we needed to fight for our wickets. It was an inspiring speech that many chose to ignore.
Mao and Preedy opened us up and immediately we were in trouble early – Mao’s dad and brother arrived. Michael Gunn doesn’t have many bad luck charms – his family watching is one of them. He stayed in for 10 overs and was dismissed for an ugly 1. He’s had two innings since he was hit in the head by Krang in the nets, his average is 0.5. Preedy also got out for 6 and locked himself to scoring for the rest of the afternoon.
Billy Gaunt entered the crease at 3, his father Tony on the sidelines waiting to be repaid his $50 SGD that he was owed weeks ago. Tony really should be charging interest, he’s missed a golden opportunity to leverage that against the USD and make a tidy profit. Gaunt lasted two balls, run out smartly by the Berowra captain at first slip. 3/for virtually 0.
Diggers and Lichaaa were the new middle order and didn’t they put on a sight to behold. Gone in succession for 2 runs between them. The pitch was playing tricks, wickets were falling and the undefeated streak in the A1:A2 wrap around season was in desperate trouble. 5/17 off 14.
Ross asked for an update on TeamApp. No one could remember their password to log in and provide the update. Is there any chance we could morph into a WhatsApp kind of updating system? Captain Krang will table this as part of the clubs bicentennial strategic agenda.
Sav and Assman consolidated but the good bowling continued. Sav was dropped on the stroke of drinks and it really could have been goodnight Irene right there and then. Despite being 5/33 off 17, we powered off the field with our heads held high.
Straight after drinks, Geoff Des Hasler (welcome back Geoff, bit of an editorial here but it’s great to see you donning the blue, white and black again. Highly respected in this team and in the wider circles alike) had no QUAMS in firing Assman leg before. 6/39 and Gas joined an ailing Sav at the crease.
Gas decided it was time to up the ante. Huge swings of the bat resulted in some edges and dropped catches. He had no time to support Sav, he wanted to ensure these tables turned as quickly as possible. Sav down the other looked like a pensioner, he tore his ACL last week and was hobbling between the wickets. Our hero was on one leg but the night is always darkest before the dawn.
Cam “do you have time off over Christmas or do you people still have to work” to Tiz. “What is the plan” Tiz replied. 6/41 and light conversation on the sidelines as Gas continued to swing like Freddie Freeman. Runs ticked over, mainly thanks to Sav.
More conversation off the field continued during Gas’ swing and miss tirade. Gas had told us he needs glasses to see the ball, but he never wears them. Today we found out why “because I don’t want to look like Jamakin.” Preeds agreed with him, he would rather be blind than look like our club legend. The topic changed when Gas launched one over mid off for 4. 6/52 with 10 to go.
Gas and Savvy Cafe kept fighting, but Gas ran his luck too much, hooking one straight to midwicket. It was a brave knock. Captain Krang made his way to the crease, and boy did we need a Captains innings now. He bunted the first ball to 1 and launched for a quick single. He made it just, Sav getting to his end before Krang – even with one leg. “What a turn of foot” – Jed.
It’s at this point I stopped writing the match report during the game. I was at a birthday party tonight but I couldn’t let you loyal readers down again. Sav finished with 63, he and Krang put on 54 and got us to 113 to defend – a respectable score but probably not enough.
In the field, Berowra lost wickets but batted well to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Wickets to Lichaa, Tiz, Krang, Gas and Sav not enough, Berowra causing us our first loss of the season. It’s the loss we needed to have. Readers, GOODBAI
A2 Grade
WPHC Blue (Campbell) 8/103 lost to ARL 2/104
Back at the Home of Cricket after last week’s “match” at the Glade, 10 of WPH’s finest were there at 1pm, ready for a rollicking good time.
The one missing- Shaan Baakshi. Shaan insisted it wasn’t a late night out at The Argyle, although he is known to be a frequent visitor to the establishment.
Shaan’s late arrival turned out to be a blessing for the rest of the team however, as we were treated to the excellent banter of Mrs. Baakshi, as she watched her son bat after dropping him off. Shaan’s mother was a delightful addition and is welcome back to the A2 fold any time.
Unfortunately for us, Mrs. Baakshi was not on the team sheet, because we can only imagine she wields the willow with the same ruthlessness with which she delivered verbal barbs watching Shaan’s batting. And boy, we could have used it.
A day to forget with the bat, skipper Campbell was the only shining light, reverse-sweeping his way to 44*. Rumour has it, he chose the day his Dad was filling in to perform, in a desperate attempt to reclaim ‘favourite son’ status. But he lost that the day young Hugo was born and has never recovered.
Also a day to forget with the ball. Makes it hard to win. Captain Campbell got sick of his bowlers getting hit for boundaries and rolled the arm over himself, bowling some leg spin that could generously be described as “dross”. He took a wicket. He is still not the favourite son. Or even our second favourite Wallace.
Big thanks to Papa Wallace, Hugo Wallace and Andrew Morris for filling in. With some troops back from overseas next week, we’re looking to make a late season charge.
B1 Grade
WPHC Blue (Shomik) TBA defeated Vs Berowra TBA
This week’s game was against Berowra, top of the table, and reminiscent of our last meeting, a 100+ run loss. Awaiting the challenge ahead, we knew we had to bring our A-game. We came with two mindsets, ensuring we came out with a win and showing that the heavyweights were beatable. Berowra didn’t give us a chance, and a culminating batting effort set us apart from our previous weeks. Batting in partnerships kept the run rate attainable and in the game the entire way, even though we used every over to get the total.
Funnily enough, similar to last week at Dural Park, the ground gave no value for shots again. From the outset, quick running and pressure fielding allowed Berowra to post a competitive total. The scoring began slowly; Harsh made great use of the ball to take early wickets and the wind out of the sails of the batting side; he would end up with 2-16 (5). Shomik opening the bowling was exciting; nevertheless, he stuck to his plan and took an opening wicket.
We felt a stranglehold coming for us. At the drinks break, the score was 3-66, modest, but an excellent set-up for the second half. But that is where the craziness happened.
A rescue helicopter landed on our field; apparently, a man was lost in the thick bushland near Mt Ku-ring-gai.
The pilots attempted to track the man whilst sitting inside the ring on the far side of the field. We lost 90 minutes of gameplay, reducing the overs to 30-a-side. With fewer overs, Berowra accelerated, pushing an extra 90 runs from the final 13.
A run rate of 5-an-over looked challenging, and we felt slightly deflated after such a good start.
Mohsin wanted a special mention, and here it is. Opening the batting with Sagnik, Mohsin somehow outscored Sagnik who has dominated the beginning of games for many weeks (Sorry, Sagnik). Mohsin and Sagnik contributed 16 and 12, respectively. The chat around the team at the end of the game commented on how we had three robust partnerships. 3rd Wicket, Shomik (33) and Mohsin. 6th Wicket, Alec (40) and Aman (29). 7th Wicket, Inzy (11) and Aman. Whilst one team member played aggressive shots, the other made sure to get their “eye” in and take singles/doubles. So when the aggressive player lost their wicket, the other was ready to accelerate.
The equation was a run-a-ball for the final four overs, and commendation goes to Inzy and Aman, who ran valiantly and played without fear. They made sure to run their singles hard when they had more fielders on the boundary than I’ve had hot meals. But with the buffer slowly dwindling and players creeping in, a cracking lofted-on drive gave us the victory.
Everything came together with the batting, a glimpse of the crazy potential we can inflict as the season ends. Bloody good effort, boys; I’m proud of you all.
WPHC Red (Birdcage) 6/139 lost to Castle Hill 5/1778
First and foremost our utmost apologies for the absence of a match report last week. Sometimes it is simply better to let the results speak for themselves.
Sadly however, we bottled it again today and therefore will resume regular programming next week after our derby win against our arch nemesis’.
Today Castle Hill beat us by 40 odd runs. We fielded and caught like 14 year olds for a second week in a row and that proved the decisive factor in the game.
We will be taking a long hard look at ourselves as we look to rebuild confidence and competency over the following week.
Match highlight:
- Ray took a wicket and should have had three if not for his incompetent peers but he’s not upset and understands it’s a part of cricket and would never let his incompetent team mates feel bad about the fact that quadriplegics look better under the aerial ball than they do
Happy Chinese new year to our Chinese readers.
Stay tuned for a big one next week.
B2 Grade
WPHC (Todd) 1/78 defeated Hornsby 9/77
After a narrow defeat last week, the boys were fired up and keen to get our first W of the new year. The Hornsby boys were also keen practicing on the wicket prior to the match, meanwhile we stood in a huddle trying to make some meaning out of Dylan Bish’s late night texts from Europe in the WhatsApp.
We would win the toss and bowl first, both Hutchinson brothers, Todd “Hutchy Jnr 1” (1-16) and Jack “Hutchy Jnr 2” (2-12) would open, Jack bowling superbly – absolutely on fire with new rock, dislodging the stumps twice. Josh Elliot (3-19) would come into the attack and was relentless, bowling absolute heat and hitting a very good length and get two wickets in the one over to get us right on top. At drinks we were in a good position with Hornsby 4-38.
After Drinks our spinners Craig “Hutchy Snr” Hutchinson (1-15) and Chris “Willy” Williamson (1-13) would absolutely dominate with the ball and were exceptionally hard to get away on a lush Dural Park. However, Hornsby would attempt a quick single to which I would let one rip straight into the right nut of my father Hutchy snr… lucky those tools have already been put to good use have been retired. An over later I would then drop a catch of his bowling… so if anyone is offering any warm meals this week that’d be great as I don’t think I’ll be receiving any at home.
A brilliant effort in the field and with the ball would restrict Hornsby to 77.
Sam Kirkegard would be sent out to open the batting hoping to knock of the runs quickly and get us back to the pub early along with Jack who had been in fine form and forced his way up the order by needing to leave early. Sam and Jack would run hard and get us off to a quick start before Sam departed for 20.
This would bring Michael “Volc” Banner to the crease and him and Jack would pick things off from where they left it before Christmas running some quick twos and even a few twos and would comfortably see us home, Volc finishing 17* and Jack 35* with 15 overs to spare… overall a good clinical result which was enjoyed by a few early beers at the Sporto.
C1 Grade
WPHC (Kapil) 85 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee 8/181
Match Report unavailable.
C2 Grade
WPHC Blue (Rob) 112 lost to WPHC Red (Indranil) 6/113
We rocked up to the West Penno derby with 7 juniors to fill-in for our holiday absentees. Honestly, I feel like we could hand over the reigns to a whole team of juniors after this performance where they did much of the heavy lifting.
The Blues won the toss and went into bat.
Haseeb started strong to breakthrough early. Haseeb and Amrit then coordinated a European Cricket League style runout to get our 2nd, and Vishnu held down his end very well before getting his own well-deserved wicket in his 4th over.
From there, the game seemed to be in our control. But kudos to Luke Fullerton for creaming every ball and making the game very competitive. Very annoying to bowl to. Good to see he was rewarded with a half-century. We bowled the Blues out for 112 in the 32nd over.
Akith and Aayush were the standouts with the bat for us, but both fell slightly short of the half century unfortunately. After their partnership I’ve regained a bit of hope in our team’s ability to run between the wickets. Well done to Riley for battling it out in the last couple of overs.
Ultimately, who else but the legendary Indranil to get the winning runs in the 2nd last over. In those last few overs, Indy had no notion of time, space or delayed-onset muscle soreness. He ran his heart out for the crucial last few runs. This was the perfect example of pushing yourself for the good of the team.
Personally, I don’t mind if we win or lose, but I would really love to see the best out of the team in the last few rounds.
This was by far the most competitive game that I’ve been a part of this season, and I’m glad to have witnessed it.
Thank you to the Blues for making it a cracker.
C3 Grade
WPHC Blue (Tarun) 5/119 ;lost to Sydney Lions 6/120
We arrived at Northholm to a locked gate and locked facilities …. It was going to be an interesting afternoon.
Stand in skipper (Peter) lost the toss again … 4 from 4 .. thank heavens Tarun is back next week!
Lachie (19) and Munish (23) opened up and saw off the new ball with an opening partnership of 43, with Lachie giving the Lions a chance that was accepted. Jay batting at 3 continued on from last week’s innings making 33 not out with partnership’s with Louis, Shak’s and Peter. We closed our innings at 119, not what we ideally wanted but that’s what we had to work with.
Jack got our bowling innings off to the perfect start, bowling the clueless Lions opener with his first delivery. Jack (2/27) partnering with Jay (1/28), produced a great opening bowling partnership. Mat (1/7) kept it in the family jagging the 2nd wicket in his first over and bowling his allocation of 7 overs for just seven runs. Jamo 1/15 and Mikey 0/22 partnered Mat and whilst opportunities were presented to us we didn’t capitalise on these.
Jay and Jack were brought back to try and make in roads into the lower order and whilst each snagged a wicket, the Lions were able to sneak across the line in the 34th over.
WPHC Red (Cameron) 8/125 defeated Berowra
After losing the toss, we were sent into bat. Our fill in openers Chetan and Brijesh faced a very accurate bowling attack. And after 12 overs we were 2 for 12 and struggling to get the run rate moving along. The slow outfield didn’t help and at drinks we were 3/32. We managed to get the run rate ticking along by the end of the 35 overs to have a defendable total of 125. The highlight of the innings was Mr reliable Hari Shanker, who was not out 57.
We knew being on the spot with bowling would give us a chance.
After John and Vikas had bowled 10 overs, Berowra were 1/25. With Vikas getting a wicket in the second over.
At drinks Berowra were 2/40 and the tide was turning in our favour. With good bowler changes and tight fielding from all the old guys we had Berowra needing 50 of the last 5 overs. In the end we won by 22 runs.
The hghlight of the bowling . Happy with 4/12 of 7. Mukund with 2/10 of 3. Once again a great team effort in the field we had 4 catches with a classic the Chetan which at the time turned the game. We live for another day.
It will be a fight to maintain our spot in the top 4, but a win today over Berowra was sweet.
C4 Grade
WPHC (Hiresh) 72 lost to Berowra 4/7
Coming from the relief of just not choking last week, we came in with solid expectations that we won’t choke or nearly choke. It was a successful mission. Instead of nearly choking on our way to a win, we got comprehensively beaten and had not so fun times.
We travelled again to Berowra for another of their home games to play on the really spongy Warrina Street Oval. We batted first and never really got going.
Anything that was hit well, just didn’t really go anywhere.. Also, we kind of picked out their fielders too which isn’t really a successful tactic to stay in but that’s just a guess. One of their fielders did the ‘whole running backwards one handed catch’ which was impressive.
With all those factors and more, it was really hard to get going. Ratul (22) and Jags (22) were the only batters to really get something. Jags hit a couple of sixes. One of them made the car driving down the road, second guess themselves or they just wanted to watch the amazing six. We like to think it’s the latter. Ratul hit some great shots but unfortunately when he looked like he was getting in, he got run out by a direct hit. The rest just struggled and that’s kind of why we got rolled for 72 runs (our lowest score this season).
But we were confident that after last week, we could defend 72. Take a few early wickets, hold our catches, and everything will be peachy.
It wasn’t peachy.
Their opener just feasted on anything short of a length, especially on leg stump. Could have been a little easier if we bowled a little bit better but he did get his eye in and made the most of it.
Hiresh’s crestfallen face summed it up when they told us that they needed 30 to win after they finished their 9th over. We took a few wickets here and there, thanks to the likes of Bala (1/15), Ratul (1/11), Shanks (1/9) and Jagbir (1/0), the latter who bowled awesomely in his spell.
However, when you’re defending 72 runs, gotta hope that the batting team imploded. They did not and they wrapped it up in 16 overs. The positive thing is that at least…there is a next game cause there ain’t no silver lining in this one.
Bounce back next week and hopefully have more fun than this one.
D1 Grade
WPHC Red (Diggers) 4/157 lost to Castle Hill 3/160
Our resources were stretched again this week so Harry from U13s backed up for a second game and Sam Baker, an U16, made his senior debut.
After a couple of losses we were keen to get back on track against Castle Hill out at Les Shore.
Diggers won the toss and decided to have a bat first. Ross and Cliff got off to a steady start before Ross holed out trying to pick up the pace. Cliff and Harry then put on 32 for the 2nd wicket before Cliff missed a loopy straight break and was stumped for 25.
Rommel was pushed up the order this week and, as planned, he took an over or two to get himself set before teeing off with some power hitting. He and Harry put on 88 for the 3rd wicket before Harry was out for a patient 20. Rommel ended up run out for 67 and we finished on 4/157 off our 35.
We set about defending what we thought was a pretty formidable total and with early wickets to Sam(1/13 off 5) and Sreeni(1/21 off 7) we looked great early.
A runout then followed and with Castle Hill 3/41 off 12 we were entitled to be warm favourites.
From there, the wheels fell off. The next two Castle Hill batters got themselves set and with some slightly wayward bowling and a few dropped catches, we slumped to our third straight loss. Castle Hill passed us with just over 3 overs to spare.
Strangely enough though, if a couple of results went as they were meant to this round, we may still be in fourth spot. Probably need to win the final 3 matches to make finals.
WPHC Blue (Arun) 7/87 defeated Beecroft 7/86
Finally it was time for our annual hiking trip to the countryside where horses run free next to the ground and are more interested in chewing up cricket balls than their actual feed.
Arcadia Park looked plush like never before TILL we set foot on the ground and immediately realised that this will be a very slow game, in-fact one of the slowest games we have played.
Arun won a critical toss and we decided to go all guns blazing with our near perfect bowling attack. Mridul, fresh of his India trip and having devoured every kind of food he usually misses here opened our attack and started bowling some crazy good lines till the first scalp arrived on the 3rd ball of the innings with a brilliant catch at the slips by Nirav (more on his catching in a bit).
Another master stroke of bringing Chintan Shah with his leggies from the other end proved fruitful and Beecroft just did not find the rhythm to score freely, albeit even go for singles. Beecroft was reeling at 4/38 at drinks with some solid catching efforts all around the park.
We thought the momentum will shift slightly after the break but that was not to be with the batters getting more focussed on seeing the ball past the stumps than actual stroke play. One of them tried to attempt a wild swing which took a top edge and then magic happened.
Nirav Desai, our team veteran ran backwards from a short fine leg position almost 25-30 metres towards square leg and took a blinder. Yes enough to make him our official fielding coach moving forward. Trust us, we need that given our recent track record. Beecroft finished at 7/86 but we knew that singles was the key as boundaries was luck of the draw on this ground.
We started off well till a couple of loose shots and unfortunate run out incidents had us at 4-41 at drinks. Praneel Singh then played his innings of his season 35* (this needed a lot of convincing trust us) and suddenly we had balls flying all around the park for sixes.
Sandeep provided incredible support at the other end for a solid 18 till be dell for another vicious run out call.
Sahil managed to take us through along with Praneel and we crossed the score with about 4 overs to spare. The umpires decided to have a couple of balls played for the scorers to tie everything up and that is a call we wish we didn’t make just to preserve Praneel’s average as he fell to a great catch in the deep. Whether that counts remains a matter of discussion and most importantly to keep Praneel happy and focussed.
All up a tremendous effort by the lads to show what this team is capable of. Hoping to finish the next few rounds strongly and then expect a miracle in the ladder. On to the next one.
D2 Grade
WPHC (Ross S) 9/135 lost to Castle Hill 0/138
I’m still hurting as I write this report as we went down by just 3 runs……one of those days when we were in control but just could not deal the blow needed…
Playing Castle Hill who had just been demoted from D grade.
Captain lost the toss and a 10 man Castle Hill decided to bat. As with all our games this season Ram and Mridal opened the bowling and both bowled terrific 3 over spells. An early wicked to Mridal Castle Hill 1-6 off 6 overs.
The less said about our next 18 overs the better…. Suffice to say, our wayward bowling continued with us just not being able to put any pressure on the batters. Too many wides and bowling down leg side is very frustrating. I must say a runout and stumping not being given against their top scoring batter (who made 72 of their total) did not help and put us on edge…
The breakthrough finally came in the 25th over after a 103 run partnership. First of two runouts to Ram with direct hits. From that point on our fortunes changed with Castle Hill managing only another 35 for the loss of 9 wickets off 10 overs. A good comeback with wickets to Gihan 4-23(7), Mridal 2/17 (6) and Henry 1-30 (6). Catches to Arjonil and Sach and 2 runouts to Ram.
Our turn to bat chasing 139 and the tone of our innings started from the 3rd over. Jake hooking a ball and the lone fielder catching it one handed on the fence…..so unlucky, then Sach picking out the point fielder…..2/6…
Fieds making a special appearance joined Ross and started to build a solid stand before he was caught behind for 11 off a very thin edge, 3/28 off 11. Gihan then came in and hit 3 massive 6’s…drinks 3/64 and still in it given Castle Hill had only 9 fielders.
After the break both batters looked to move the score along. Disaster struck in the 20th over losing Ross for 14 and the Ram second ball…then two overs later we lost Gihan for a well-made 37….heaps of trouble at 6/83. Our two youngest players Henry and Arjonil then put on a stand of 40 off just 8 overs. Henry being dismissed for 33 his highest seniors score.
Needing just 15 runs off 4 overs, certainly doable. We lost another quick wicket with a catch on the boundary, leaving us 5 runs to get off 7 ball, Arjinol and Roger together….unfortunately Roger ran himself out looking for a quick single on the last ball of the over…..5 to win with Arjinol and Simon batting. With only a single off the last over we were unfortunately unable to reach our target.
Kudos to our U15 player Arjinol Mukherjee….who scored an important 12 no batting at 8.
So our second loss of the season, which throws us back into 3rd place. Not ideal….