T20 Semi Finals

The T20 Semi Finals were played on Sunday and we had the following Teams competing:

• 2^nd Grade (Simon’s A2 side)
• 3^rd Grade (Rob Knapman’s B2 side)
• 4^th Grade (Steve Burrows C2 side)

2^nd Grade

WPHC 5/158 defeated Sydney Lions 5/154 – after winning possibly his only Toss before Christmas the day before, Snumpty fell back into his normal ways, and we were asked to bowl. The Lions hit their way to 5/154 off their 20 overs, after our fielding could only be described as about as good as a stubbed toe. Highlights were Fernie Meikle taking 2/12 off his 4, Joshy Banner and Lichaaa Richards taking wonderful catches in the deep, and Joshy executing a brilliant direct run out from the deep.

Some quick cameos with the bat left us at 5/77, requiring a further 78 of 10 overs. Enter Lichaaa and Hedgey Bedi, who hit vital boundaries, and ran hard between the wickets, to get us back into the contest. Lichaaa cleared the fence twice, and 8 an over got down to under a run a ball, off the last 4 overs. Hedgey then pounded a pull shot for another 4, off the last ball of the 19th over, to bring up a remarkable victory, and see a magnificent partnership get us into the GF. Lichaaa finished on 60*, with Hedgey on 42*.

We are now into the GF in a fortnight against Berowra. Given the opportunity to improve our fielding, and the likelihood that all 47 squad members will be available, we are very much looking forward to this game.

3^rd Grade

WPHC 7/188 defeated Normanhurst 7/161 – we won the toss and decided to set a total. Andrew Morris (62) came out with intent sending the first ball back over the bowlers head. After the loss of our first wicket, Andrew was able to take a backseat as Ray Khamis joined him at the crease. Ray went about blasting the ball to all parts of the ground leaving the opposition bowlers struggling to hold their nerve. Ray and Andrew put on a 104 run partnership before Ray was dismissed for 78. Brent Larkham made a quick fire 28* in the final overs leaving us with a total of 189 to defend.

We knew we had to bowl well as Normo had the fire power to give the run chase a crack. Rob Knapman (1/28) opened the bowling and took a wicket in the first over. Aaron Hawkins (2/38) followed up with a wicket 2 overs later. One Normo batsman put on 87 runs, but we were able to take regular wickets and stop the opposition from building any partnerships. The wickets were spread around: Dean Carlin 1/19, Ray Khamis 1/9, David Larkham 1/11. David bowled the last over of the match and to say it was an eventful one would be an understatement.

David bowled a couple of ‘short’ deliveries that were put away. Then David’s son Brent fired a throw in to the bowlers end which caused a mix up with the batsmen. David stopped the rocket but fumbled the ball, fell on the ball, then eventually plucked the ball out from between his legs, and did his best Superman impression as he dove straight at the stumps with his arm outstretched. Out! David’s next ball was again ‘short’ but the batsman skied the ball and was caught by Brent on the fence.

A great win by the boys and we now face Berowra in the Final.

4^th Grade

WPHC 4/138 defeated Kissing Point 7/79 – losing the toss and being asked to bat first, Indranil carried on his fine form from his century on Saturday to dispatch the KP bowling to all parts with a scintillating 55, well supported by an aggressive innings from Nick Colley (36) and a thumping cameo from Peter Lees (20*) to post a very good 138 from our 20 overs.

Our turn to field brought a blistering opening spell from Mahir Khan and Tanay Hira who reduced KP to 5/14 at one stage and crushed the oppositions chances by the end of their 8 over pairing. Mahir finished with the phenomenal figures of 4/9 and Tanay 1/6.

The supporting bowlers made sure there wasn’t another look in with Amith (1/8) and last minute ring in Steve Quanborough (1/1) the other wicket takers.

Some superb catches including a blinder from the Quan, and fantastic ground fielding showed why this side deserves its spot in the Final. Let’s hope for a repeat performance in a fortnight!

Saturday Competition

A1 Grade

WPHC 144 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee 8/222 – the day began like any other at Turramurra Oval. We turned up with smiles on our faces and keen for an amazing warm-up run by Daniel ‘Dirk’ Heidegger. The boys were keen and the warm-up set a positive tone for the day. We officially welcomed our debutants for the season in a shirt and hat ceremony following the warm-up!

James ‘Jamakin’ lost the toss and Normanhurst decided to bat first. We did not know at this time but were about to watch one of the best knocks by an A Grade batsman in recent history. Unfortunately it was not by one of our boys. One of the Normanhurst Guys (Mitch Fullagar) scored 140* of his Teams’222 runs with the next best just 16 runs from their number 9 This was some of the cleanest hitting we have every seen and he simply made it look easy and took the game away from us.

The boys were upbeat all day and the motivation never got low , as we fielded and defended as best as we could. Phil ‘Philemon’ Wurth provided many laughs and interesting conversations throughout the innings and the highlights were: Cameron McBrien took his 1^st A1 Grade wicket; Andy Meikle had an amazing direct hit runout and fielded like an absolute Champion all day.

We went into bat and knew we needed a couple of blokes to score some quality knocks. Unfortunately, in the chase of the big score, and how often does this happen in cricket, we lost regular wickets on our way to 144. Josh ‘Yoyo’ Mathias scored a classy 46 and was the backbone of the knock. Daniel ‘Dirk’ Heidegger scored 20 and many other scores were in the teens.

The effort and enthusiasm of the Team could not be faulted. It was ‘one of those days’ for us where we were simply shown a Masterclass in batting. The Team stayed enthusiastic and worked hard all day but it was not to be.

We are keen for Round 3 and are well on our way to get off the mark this season in the next match. There is a good vibe in the Team and we are close to firing. Best for us were:

Bowling:

JP – 4/31

Cam – 1^st A Grade wicket

Batting:

Yoyo – 46

Dirk – 20

A2 Grade

Blue (Rick) 133 lost to SKLPS 3/134 – match report to follow.

Red (Simon) 7/193 defeated Kenthurst 113 – a massive Round 2 clash, and Snumpty ‘See My Blazer’ Smyth was elated to win a toss, and then chose to bat. Some good Kenthurst opening bowling made scoring tough early, until Jimmy ‘Yellow Is The New Black’ McBrien (19) started to up the run rate. Mobbo ‘Party Boy’ Robertson then took control with a brilliant 50, before young star, Josh ‘The Better Banner’ Banner showed his class and power, spanking 53*. His partnership with fellow young gun, Stanton ‘Casual Theft’ Tam got us to a very good total, and with 16 hit off the final over, we reached 7/193.

Wanting early wickets, both Gandis ‘In Vegan Denial’ Herzog and Snumpty struck in the first 7 balls. 5 wickets fell in the first 13 overs, to put Kenthurst on the back foot, and dismissed for 113 in 36 overs. Wickets were taken by Mobbo (3), Gandis (2), Costo ‘My Bat Was Expensive’ Costigan (2), Jimmy Mc (1), Snumpty (1) and Hollywood ‘Sorry I Got In The Way Josh’ Leyshon (1). Our fielding was great, with some terrific catches taken.

A really impressive team win!

Votes:

3 – Stanton ‘Nuggets This Week’ Tam

2 – All ‘I’ll Pick Up The Undies’ Raffel

1 – Tis ‘Finger Bung’ Mistry

B1 Grade

WPHC 8/118 defeated ARL 117 – Round 2 down at a brand new pitch at Headen Park, we lost the toss and Asquith chose to bat first. The innings was very balanced, with tight bowling from everyone we weren’t making it easy for them to score runs, but went into the half way mark 2/53.

The next session was amazing, with wickets falling at regular intervals, and every catch taken in the outfield. Ben Meikle on a pitch that wasn’t turning much, ripped through their batting, finishing off with an amazing 5 wicket haul! We bowled them all out in the 36^th over for 117. The best of the bowlers being Ben Meikle 5/29, Semonn Oleksyn 3/20 and Nathaniel Chidgey 2/17, and Prats Datar really tying down their run rate, with 0/15 off 8 including 3 maidens.

Going into our batting innings we were very confident with what we restricted Asquith to, and we started in amazing fashion thanks to Dinesh De Silva! At 20 overs we were well on track at 3/71, with Dinesh looking like he was playing a whole other game to everyone else, hitting the ball everywhere. We looked like we would comfortably win until we lost 4 wickets for 1 run! In the end we got there with 2 wickets to spare, Dinesh having an amazing innings finishing on 67! The best of the batting were Dinesh De Silva 67, Aaron Carlini 18 and Michael Fiedler 5.

It was another great win from the team going 2 from 2 for the season so far!

B2 Grade

Blue (Tim) 62 lost to SKLPS – beautiful weather graced us today at Glenhaven Oval. Once again Captain Wortho lost the toss. Bowling first we tried to make SKLPS grind out runs, with some tight bowling and great fielding. At the half way mark SKLPS were 5-80, with their captain showing the way with an eventful 50.

We ended bowling them out for 154, a great effort in the field, although 39 sundries was a major contributing factor assisting their total. Bowling honours were as follows:

Standout was Jack Hando 6-23 (8), James Reynolds 2-27 (7), Napier Gryst 1-23 (4) & Nick Duck 1-14 (4), Matt Rashleigh 0-28 (6), Alex Chidgey 0-19 (5) & Sam Hando 0-10 (5).

In reply Raghu Chary (9) & Napier Gryst (19) got the scoring along nicely to be 0-33 in the 10th over, however this culminated in a monumental batting collapse 10-29 with few batsmen putting a price on their wicket. All out for 62 in the 22nd over.

A disappointing reply with the bat, some net work will be required this week. Thanks for Oliver Maybury being 12th man, busy for most of the day with Alex Chidgey succumbing to injury. Blue team over and out!

Red (Rob) 118 lost to Kenthurst 5/123 – we won the toss and elected to bat on a fast Greenway Park. Our openers saw off the new ball while keeping the runs ticking over. Andrew Morris (15) and Ray Khamis (40) once again started to build a partnership until Andrew was out to a very sharp catch. At 4/80 we were in a good position to go on to post a defendable total. Unfortunately we then lost 6/38 to leave us with a tough task in the field.

Kyle Townsend (1/16) got the first breakthrough with a great delivery straight through the gate. Matt Digby (2/20) bowled well to take a couple of wickets including a well taken caught and bowled. Rob Knapman (2/28) picked up two wickets thanks to safe hands in the field.

Kenthurst past our total with 10 overs remaining. A tough test for us early in the season, but we showed enough potential that we can build on for the matches ahead.

C1 Grade

WPHC 6/178 defeated ARL 162 – match report to come

C2 Grade

WPHC 225 defeated Kenthurst 157 – sent into bat on a fast Annangrove Oval, our top order looked good but didn’t consolidate their starts and left us at 6/57 at one stage. Knowing we batted deep into the order, it was the young guns who stood up and took charge. Scott Chapman and Brent Larkham added 48 for the 7th wicket before Brent fell for a well made 28.

Tanay Hira joined Scott and both showed maturity in choosing the right ball to hit and defending solidly whilst rotating the strike nicely, Scott was out after an excellent 37 and was replaced by his Dad who took up where he left off. Tanay and Murray Chapman added a superb 77 for the next wicket challenging the bowlers and sensibly pressuring the field to keep the run rate climbing nicely.

Tanay was finally run out for his first ever half century, finishing with 56 (7×4 1×6), well done! Murray capped off his return to the batting crease with an untroubled 21* to post a team total of 225.

In the field, Scott struck with his 2nd ball to set the early tone in our bowling innings, well supported by Tanay, there were no easy runs early. Brent stepped into the attack and produced early results, and with Buzz and Murray picking up wickets in their spells, we had Kenthurst 7/70. There was a bit of late hitting from the lower order, but the game was always in hand, Kenthurst all out 157 and another tidy win. Best bowlers were Brent 3/30, Scott 3/32, Murray 2/13 and Buzz 2/22.

Strong early season signs of the team working well together, we look forward to the challenge next round.

C3 Grade

WPHC 5/169 defeated Kenthurst 8/164 –before the start of the game, the question asked to Captain was ‘what’s the strategy?’. Captain responded a quote from Warnie ‘To me, cricket is a simple game. Keep it simple and just go out and play.’ And we had almost the core 11 playing this round, which is the first big step. Toss time and alas we lost it again.

Kenthurst made a steady start on a good outfield at Kenthurst Park. Our opening bowlers bowled a tight line and length but no luck and few missed chances. We got our first break from Sreeni Pillamarri after 13 overs by that time they were at 61. A flurry of wickets after that reduced Kenthurst to 6/112 at the 30 over mark with the best bowling coming from the youngster Ben Waldron who took 4 wickets. Kenthurst with some late hitting finished their innings on 164 losing 8 wickets. Pick of the bowlers being Ben Waldron 4/15, Amith Ninan 2/29 , Sreeni 1/28 and Louis Madison 1/17.

A special mention of excellent fielding display by Manu Verma taking 3 spectacular catches in the outfield and saving atleast 20 runs. Good work Manu!

It was our turn to bat and it was some great entertainment with caution from the opening batsmen Indranil and Anthony Kwok making a partnership of 67 runs in just 9 overs. Indranil scored 24 runs of the first over he faced, scoring shots being 4 4 4 6 6. It was one of those days when nothing was going for the opposition in spite changing bowlers at regular intervals. We continued the batting dominance with another partnership of 76 runs for the 3^rd wicket between Manu Verma and Indranil.

There was a late flurry of wickets trying to finish the game quickly, reaching the target finally in 33.4 overs losing 5 wickets. Main scorers were Indranil 100, Anthony 20, Manu Verma 18, Peza 10* and Ben 2*. Indranil’s ton was the 463^rd in our History.

A good solid performance by the team and looking good in terms overall balance in batting and bowling.

Need some tidy up on the field and will be an area to watch out.

D1 Grade

WPHC 9/189 lost to Mt Colah 2/192 – after winning toss Gautam elected to bat, hoping to set a defendable total. Some classy batting from opener Dylan Bish (73) got West Pennant Hills off to a good start leaving them 0/56 after 13 overs. A batting collapse in the top order saw West Pennant Hills 4/141 at the 30 over mark.

Rob Hanich (20) and David Larkham (14) chipped in with a few runs towards the end to leave West Pennant Hills with a defendable total of 9/189.

Dylan Bish (0/33) and David Larkham (1/38) opened the bowling unable to get the early breakthrough. A few fielding errors cost us an early breakthrough and as a result Mt Colah went into the drinks break at 1/116 after 20 overs.

Connor Hindmarch (1/48) collecting the first breakthrough just before drinks. Economical overs from both David Larkham and Lindsay Walker (0/24) gave us a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately it was not to be after Mt Colah hit the winning boundary with 11 balls to spare and 8 wickets in hand.

D2 Grade

WPHC 9/109 lost to Hornsby 4/110 – we won the toss and opted to bat first. Hornsby bowlers bowled a very good line and length. Our batters were troubled throughout the first 20 overs. Our openers managed 14 runs by the 7th over before losing their wickets. We then lost the next two wickets but reached the 25 run mark. Things were looking desperate. Darcy Ward who has just come back to cricket after being away for about 8 years then hit a cool 53 runs to take our score to 85 making it look a little more respectable.

By the end of 40 overs we were 109 runs but down 9 batters. At least our lower order managed NOT to be all out and showed stubbornness to finish out the overs.

Hornsby came into bat and after 10 overs were 0 wickets for 25 runs. They lost their first wicket to Darcy Ward when John Rose managed to get a hand to the ball knocking it upwards before grabbing it and tumbling onto his side. Hornsby’s score stood at 41 runs after 14 overs with no loss. Thiru Pukazthenhi took the next wicket with the wicket keeper taking a catch. Captain Mike managed to take a further two wickets but Hornsby hit 110 in their 28th over.