Headline achievements

• Best performances from Round 12 are:
  • 100 wickets to Darshan Pandya (A1 / B1) from last week
  • We won 6 games, lost 3 and drew 1
  • Best performances:
    • Dinesh De Silva (B2) scored 87 and this was the highest score in the Association
    • Our bowlers starred this weekend:

• Matt Digby (C2 Red) took – 2^nd best bowling effort in the Association
• Sreeni Pillamarri (D1) took 5/19 to be the 3^rd best bowling effort in the Association
• Tim Leyson (B1) took 4/24
• Gopy Parathan (C2 Blue) – 4/32.

A1 Grade

WPHC 7/141 defeated Normanhurst-Warrawee 8/140 – as we arrived at a “wetish” Storey Park, a story was to be told. Skipper Jamaican got us off to a solid start with convincing the Captain of Normo to let us bowl first. Our bowlers toiled very hard with all of them working over the Normo batsmen. Wickets were shared evenly amongst Jobbo, Bonga Miedler, James “JP” Paterson, Vader Pandya and also Rob Dog Mobbo. The fielding was solid apart from a few absolute sitters of drop catches. Fat, JP and Jobbo were the offenders but they managed to make up for the bad attempts at catches with solid contributions in their areas of expertise. We restricted Normo to 140, excellent effort from our bowlers.

It was an all round team effort with the bat today as there was solid contributions all round. Philthy Phil Wurth sounded out his famous laugh mid-way through the innings to show to the opposition that we were home. Jobbo made a quick fire classy 30. Philthy and Mobbo also chipped in with solid contributions. The finisher Michael “Bonga” Miedler finished the job as usual. Great effort today from the lads in tricky circumstances. A win in the remaining 2 rounds will lock up a top 2 finish.

A2 Grade

WPHC drew with Normanhurst-Warrawee – it was disappointing that our game at The Glade was called off due to a wet wicket. With 3 other washouts the 2 points all but assures us of finishing in 3^rd spot with 1 win in the remaining 2 games the guarantee that we need.

B1 Grade

WPHC 9/91 defeated St Ives 80 – today was a day of mixed emotions until the miracle ending, but we started off well by winning the toss at Bannockburn Park against St Ives (a key game they are 3rd and we are 2nd). From the positive start of the toss win it all went down-hill quite fast as we were 2/42 off the first 20 overs, then quickly 4/44 off 23.

With many of our key batsmen out our bottom order had a chance to save us, to which they did their best, but it was again not meant to be as we ended up on 9/91 off the 40 overs. Now this wasn’t our best score of the season, in fact, it was probably our worst batting performance, with Josh ‘Chicken Legs’ Banner (21) and Justin ‘Clive’ Edwards (13) being the top scorers for our team.

From here, we only could hope our bowlers were all at their best, and they sure were from the get go. We had St Ives at 4/51 off their first 20 overs. From this point it was either them getting the runs, or us getting the 6 wickets left. We had another excellent bowling attack today. The best part was our second change bowlers dominated the opposition – Tim ‘Hollywood’ Leyshon (4/24 off 8) and Andrew ‘Voice’ Driscoll (3/12 off 8) were our stars and cleaned up St Ives after they were sure they would get the win. We ended up bowling them out for 80, and was definitely our best win of the season, with Justin getting help from Kyle ‘Krusty’ Faber to run out the final wicket.

B2 Grade

WPHC 8/218 lost to Beecroft 7/220 – we were on the end of another poor loss today. The ground at Cheltenham was slightly damp from the drizzle but generally in good nick and playing super fast. We won the toss on a hot and humid afternoon and decided to bat. We lost Willy in the second over but Anushka and Dinesh put on a good partnership for the second wicket. We lost three quick wickets and went to the drinks break (19 overs) at 4/101.

After drinks Dinesh decided to pile on the runs and dominated the second session. He was ably supported by cameos from Rahul Sabherwal, Pat Phillips and Prats Datar. Dinesh fell for a magnificent 87 at 176. Ben Meikle provided some lusty hitting (including 3×6’s) for a well compiled 33 at the end of our innings. We finished our 40 overs at 8/218 a decent score. Best of our batting Dinesh De Silva 87, Ben Meikle 33, Rahul Sabherwal 32 and Dinuka Jayasuriya 16*.

We knew Beecroft would come out and swing hard because that’s the way they play. We dropped crucial catches in the first 3-4 overs and those dropped catches cost us big time with the fast scoring conditions. Overall our fielding was pretty ordinary and a large number of dropped catches put paid to any chance of winning the game as the Beecroft batsmen continued to tee off. Beecroft passed our total in 33 overs. Best of our bowlers Koby O’Meara 3/38, Peter Flook 2/26, Prats Datar 1/19 and Ben Meikle 1/30.

There wasn’t too much to like about today’s effort – a poor fielding performance let us down badly. We need to lift for the upcoming games on the run into the finals.

C1 Grade

WPHC 5/190 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee 5/192 – we won a toss and had a bat in the hottest part of the day, on a ground we knew required at least 200 runs as par. We took a bit of time to get in to the groove with the bat as we had a few top order players returning from long breaks. Century scorer from our last match, Mat Marsden held things together well and continued his good form with 42.

Unfortunately his dismissal in the 19^th over started a mini-collapsed of 3/15, leaving us 5/92 in the 24^th over.

Mikey and skipper Andrew Fiedler were left to rebuild the innings and give us a score to defend. They did so, though the heat was oppressive and it was tough for the old bloke to keep up with his fleet-footed partner, but they managed to put on an unbeaten 98 run partnership with Mikey finishing on 48* & Fieds 44* which got us near our pre-game target.

The first ball of the innings was strangely a turning point in the game. The Normo opener clearly edged Semonn Oleksyn for a simple catch but the umpire half raised his finger then lowered it. He proceeded to club 48 runs and see his side to a strong start before he was dismissed at 2/103 in the 18^th over. The runs were coming at quite a rate helped a lot by our unusually wayward bowling. We took a couple of quick wickets to put us in with a chance to have them 4/111 at the halfway mark, but some good batting by the middle order was enough to see them home with 3.5 overs to spare. Best of the bowlers were Kishore with 2/36, while Semonn, Stanton and Mat took a pole each.

The win should still leave us in 1^st position but we have some teams breathing down our necks, so we’ll have to lift our performance for the remaining matches before we enter the Semi finals.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue 9/134 lost to Kissing Point 9/187 – with KP batting first we controlled their scoring and after Rashy broke the opening partnership at 40 we continued to pick up steady wickets to have them 7/104. An aggressive 8th wicket partnership aided by a couple of dropped catches and some indifferent fielding (albeit on one of the worst fielding surfaces in the Association – Mimosa), they added another 70 and finished posting 187.

Gopy Parathan proved the pick of the bowlers with 4/32. Young Varun Ravindram was good enough to fill in for us today and he bowled two excellent spells challenging the batsmen and was unlucky not to pick up a wicket 0/17. Nikki (Ben Cutting) O’Meara picked up two, Rashy and Adrian one a piece.

Unfortunately our batting never fired and with Joel B injured and unable to bat until lower in the order, we were 3/22 before a slight stabilisation from Peter Lees 26 & Gopy 18. A mini collapse of 5/12 effectively dashed our chances of chasing down the total, but an entertaining partnership between Nikki and Shankar (the same pair that frustrated KP last time we played them) put on 52 for the 8th wicket to add some respectability. Nikki dispatching the bowlers with a hard hitting 38 and Shankar Ravi notching up his highest score for WPH with 15* (Well done Mate!). We batted out to finish short at 134.

Apart from theoretical possibilities of unexpected results going our way, this leaves us out of the race for the Semis so we can relax and enjoy the last couple of rounds and maybe exorcise a few batting demons to finish the season on a high note.

WPHC Red 6/141 defeated Normanhurst-Warrawee 135 – arriving at a steamy Greenway Park, the plan was to win the toss and have a bat. Once again we lost the toss and found ourselves out in the field! We picked up a wicket in the 6th over and followed it up with another in the 7th. Normo dug in and started to build a total until Alex Chidgey (1/9) broke the partnership.

A run out just before the drinks break swung the momentum towards us. At 4/106 we still had a job to do! After the drinks break Matt Digby tore through the opposition taking 5/18. Matt dismissed 3 batsmen for 0 and took the valuable wicket of the Normo opener. In tough conditions, the boys plugged away in the field. Nathaniel Chidgey led by example, taking a ridiculous catch above his head, back handed while facing the opposite direction. The boy’s confidence continued to grow.

We got off to a smooth start with the bat, seeing off the first 10 overs without loss. Andrew Morris (34) and Zac Morris (22) increased the run rate and put the pressure on the bowlers. Ryan Gunn (15), Rhys Flynn (16) and Nathaniel (10*) left nothing to chance, making sure we passed the Opposition total with an over to spare! A great team effort against a tough opposition!

C3 Grade

WPHC 3/89 defeated Hornsby 81 – on what seemed like was going to be a wet day, we found ourselves at Foxglove Oval and were sent in to field first. While we would have definitely preferred to bat first, we were up for the challenge and were rewarded for some excellent bowling from Ryan Loveridge and Zac Turner to start off proceedings.

A tight spell ensured early wickets in the form of a catch off Zac’s bowling and a run out to put us in commanding position. Captain Tarun then produced a crushing spell, bagging 3 wickets in his 5 overs. Ishaan also picked up 3 wickets along with Ben bowling beautifully to pick up his 6^th wicket of the day with 2 in this match.

Thanks to a brilliant fielding effort by the team we rolled over the opposition for just 81. Cameron Bish was excellent in the field and saved at least 15-20 runs and also took 2 catches. Gautam, “Batman” was also impeccable behind the stumps, catching everything that came his way and ending with 3 catches to his name.

Batting wasn’t going to be extremely hard, but nonetheless application was required from our players, which we produced. Thanks to some fluent batting from Zac (11) and Perry Waldron (10), we were off to a good start and Asees (17) just carrying on the momentum. We ended our innings with Ramil and Cameron not out on 22 and 12 respectively. Thanks to some fluent batting, rotation of strike and big hitting from Ramil De Silva (2 sixes into the adjoining ground) and Asees Rajput (first six of the game) we were not bogged down for runs and kept the momentum with us throughout the game.

We finished with a team score of 89 for the loss of 3 wickets. Overall a game full of positives and one that will just add to our confidence. An all-round excellent performance from every player in the team had us cherish a crushing victory and hopefully carry on this momentum for our upcoming games.

D1 Grade

WPHC 6/76 defeated Glenorie 71 – today we had what was in essence a QF match, we lost the toss and were asked to bowl which we were not unhappy about.

An early wicket to Raunak Sethi (1/13 off 6) put us good shape and even the Opposition were commenting on just how well he was bowling. After 8 overs Glenorie started to up the ante with some boundaries and were about 1/34 after 11 overs. The change of bowlers brought immediate results with Sreeni Pillamarri (5/19 off 7) and Amith Ninan (2/13 off 4) turning the game on its head in the next 10 overs taking 7 wickets to have Glenorie 8/64. This including Sreeni who took an LBW and bowled in consecutive deliveries with the hat-trick ball fished meekly at by the batsman but unfortunately no touch.

Another high point was Pav Kozrev who took a ripper of a catch at point which went like a bullet, no one was more surprised that Pav himself who was beside himself with happiness.

After drinks Sreeni continued from one end but it was Chris Bloom (2/5 off 2.5) who finished the innings in style clean bowling the no. 11 in the 25th over.

In reply, we lost 2 wickets in the first overs to be 2/7. Pratah Sinnetamby (30) with Sreeni Pillamarri (17) put on a crucial 38 run 3rd wicket stand and were looking in fine touch until the 15th over. The next 5 overs belonged to Glenorie who took 4 for 12 in that time to have WPH 6/57. After drinks Dylan Bish (13*) stepped up with the tail to bring us over the line in the 25th.

This win puts us 16 points ahead of 5th which should be enough to make us semi-finals bound. Now to show what we can do against last placed Berowra before facing the competition leaders in the last round.

D2 Grade

WPHC 189 defeated Kenthurst 127 – Kenthurst won the toss on a steamy somewhat wet pitch and sent WPHC into bat first in this one day match. Our openers Thiru Pukazenthi and Ben Kinchington batted for 11 overs without loss to reach 28 runs.

We lost our second wicket on 47 and our third on 106. Roshan Withange hit a respectable 24 runs and Ben Kinchington 23 runs. We lost 3 wickets between 106 and 113 when the ball started swinging. However, John Rose and Brent Van Wck had a partnership stand bringing our total runs to 189. John Rose hit 55 runs and Brent hit 59 runs in his stand including 6 fours and 3 sixers to take the game away from Kenthurst.

We managed to bowl out Kenthurst by the 36th over. Captain Mike took 2 for 10 runs off 3.1 overs and Ben Kinchington took 2 for 21 off 5 overs. Pauk Vink, Siby Joseph, Dinal Silva, John Rose, Brent Van Wck, Roshan Withanage each took a wicket. Ian Williams, Brent Van Wck and Roshan Withanage all took spectacular and difficult catches. This win should take us into the semi-finals.

Points table

After 12 Rounds we have 8 Teams in the top 4 with 3 Teams leading the Comp:

• A1                   2^nd
• A2                   3^rd
• B1                    2^nd
• B2                    1^st
• C1                    1^st
• C2 Blue           7^th
• C2 Red           6^th
• C3                    1^st
• D1                   3^rd
• D2                   3^rd

Elite performers

Our website has the latest stats on our Top Performers this season. We only use Seniors stats as with Juniors we promote Participation over Results.

The following information is on our top fielding performances as at the end of Round 11:

Top 5 fielders

1. Riley Behlevanas (C2 Blue) – 15 (plus 2 w/k)
2. Tarun Lath (C3) – 13 catches
3. Stanton Tam (C1) – 12
4. James McBrien (A2) – 10
5. Luke Herzog (A2) – 8
6. Alex Robertson )A2) – 8
7. Brent Larkham (C2) – 8
8. Justin Edwards (B1) – 8
9. Ryan Loveridge (C3) – 8

Top 3 wicket-keepers

1. Joel Behlevanas (C2 Blue) – 13 catches + 2 stumpings + 1 as a non-keeper
2. Nick Bennett (A1) – 12 catches
3. Gautam Ayyar (C3) – 12 catches + 4 as a non-keeper.