Points Table

Standings after 8 Rounds are:

• A1 Grade – =4^th (4^th on quotient)
• A2 – 1^st
• B1:
  • Blue (Rick) – 8^th
  • Red (Gunny) – 3^rd
• B2 – 4^th
• C1 – 5^th
• C2:
  • Blue (Fieds) – 1^st
  • Red (Indranil) – 5^th
• C3 – 2^nd
• D1 – 2^nd
• D2 – 5^th

Match Reports

A Grade 185 lost to Galston-Glenorie 294 – match report to come

A2 Grade 7 dec 303 defeated SKLPS 176 – a truly magnificent crowd turned up at The Home Of Cricket (Greenway Park), to watch world cricket’s tent pitchers in action. The crowd was so big, that season ticket holders, the Banners, had to wait outside the ground, before the hordes rushed in, to get their favourite seats.

Play started, and Cambo ‘Ramsay’ McBrien got into his work, claiming the first 2 poles of the day, in a fiery spell, reminiscent of the other time when he bowled a fiery spell. The second wicket of the day went to another great catch at slip from Fernie ‘Mine Snump’ Meikle. That put SKLPS on the back foot, which allowed Snumpty ‘Stranded’ Smyth to bend his back and bowl medium pace, snicking the next pole to LMac ‘Alternator’ McBrien to take his first snare of the day.

On came Blowy ‘Bay 13’s Favourite’ Blow, who welcomed his dad’s arrival with 2 quick wickets, 1 to a sniffer and the other to a cartwheel, to effectively put SKLPS out of the game, just like that nerd on schoolies.

After tea, Gandis ‘Santa Paws’ Herzog tried bowling at the stumps, and hit them a couple of times, to see him finish with 3/25 off 17. Amazing stats for a vegan.

The last 2 SKLPS batsmen tried to block out an hour and a half for a draw, but Blowy (3/12 off 10) came back on with another sniffer, for the last wicket to be caught by Volc ‘Best Banner’ Banner in the gully, to see us with a comfortable victory.

Special mention to Fat ‘Cannon Arm’ Fat for his cannon arm, and to the Banner family for still attending, even though they had to line up for entry. #commitment

B1 Blue (Rick) 158 lost to St Ives 0/13 – today was not out day, didn’t matter how many chances we created not a whole lot went to hand. Or if it did, we managed to drop it, Peter “Slender” Flook and Calvin “DJ/50 CAL” Breytenbach bowled extremely well for little or no reward.

A couple of our spinners came into the attach with “Willie” (we all know who that is) and Ollie “No nickname” Maybury bowled well again for little reward. A harsh day in the field and there was talk about how POO the game of cricket can be. Not much else is to be said about today’s performance – we’re looking forward to next week against Berowra on their home turf in Brooklyn on an old cow paddock.

B1 Red (Gunny) 3/192 dec defeated Castle Hill Green 100 & 5/108 – resuming at 0/10 we aimed to chase down Castle Hill’s modest total before having a crack at an outright win.

After losing an early wicket, Gunny (39) and Matt Watts consolidated before upping the run rate in a partnership worth 71 runs. With 17 runs required to win on first innings, Brent joined Matt at the crease. We overtook Castle Hill’s total shortly after, with the intent to bat on and build a first innings lead.

With Matt’s clean hitting and Brent’s glorious stroke play we amassed a total of 192, with Matt dismissed on the last ball before our declaration. The 3rd wicket partnership worth 108 was scored in 14 overs, with Matt finishing on 79 and Brent on 62 not out.

With a 92 run lead we had 43 overs to bowl out Castle Hill and secure an outright victory.

Wickets were hard to come by, as our bowlers toiled away in the hot weather to limited success. We managed to have Castle Hill at 3/51 at the last drinks break, with Oliver ‘Zampa’ Linschoten producing a jaffa of a delivery to bowl the competition’s best batsmen around his legs. Despite a fiery spell from Semonn (2/6) giving us hope, we ran out of time, with Castle Hill finishing 5/108.

Despite not being able to secure the outright win, this was a dominant performance. We’ll look to use this momentum to finish off the calendar year with another good win. Special thanks to Joel Behlevanas and Oliver for filling in this game!

B2 9/153 drew with Galston Glenorie 5/208 – the Opposition resumed at 5/208 and looked to add a few quick fire runs. A great direct hit run out by Matt Digby in the first over put the breaks on.

Prats Datar (2/29) knocked the stumps over in his second over. Dean Carlin (2/39) finished it off the next over by finding the edge and the chance was taken behind by Gunny before the Opposition declared.

Zac Morris (27) and Ryan Gunn got us off to a solid start, putting on a 61 run opening stand. The runs continued to add up and we found ourselves 2/100 at tea, with a minimum of 33 overs remaining.

Gunny dug in at the crease while wickets began to fall around him. We slipped to 7/135 when Naps joined Gunny at the crease to see out the end of the days play. Gunny was eventually caught on the boundary for 70 runs after a great knock and batting for 50 overs.

Naps and Diggers were left to see off 16 overs. Diggers dug in well before he was dismissed with 3 overs remaining. Dean Carlin and Naps fought through the last overs despite some over the top appeals to remain unbeaten and secure the draw.

C1 9 dec 354 defeated Castle Hill 164 – defending 350 was always going to be a nice headache, and our bowlers toiled for 62.4 overs to collect a first innings win Castle Hill out 164.

An emphatic result for the guys, Sam Hando (16 overs 5 maidens 0-23) bowled outrageously quick across 3 spells causing the Opponents trouble throughout.

Waris Trehan (1-27 off 8) bowled very tight lines and also caused their batsmen trouble. Raunik Sethi (1-21 off 7) bowled extremely well especially when one of their key batsman tried to take the long handle to him. Pavan Cherupalli (0-8 off 4) bowled economically and bowled some rip snorters as well.

The stars with the ball were Nandu Ramesh (11 overs 5 maidens 4-11) & Asees Rajput (16 overs 2 maidens 4-66), these 2 bowled in tandem beautifully and created many more chances throughout, overall a well executed batting & bowling performances from the guys, bring on Mount Colah our last 2 dayer for 2018.

C2 Blue (Fieds) 4/161 defeated Castle Hill 159 – Day 1 score – match report to follow

C2 Red (Indranil) 4/134 defeated Normanhurst-Warrawee 9/134 – arrived at the ground needing to take one wicket before commencing the run chase. Normo managed to eek out 3 runs before Nikki O’Meara (2/25) snared the last wicket, and his 100th for the Club.

Vinod and Graham set about chasing down the 135 needed to win. Graham (2) went cheaply and Vinod (8) went soon after. Andy Driscoll (8) played a few attractive shots but was caught out with the score on 46.

Ramil (34) was at his swashing buckling best and was hammering the bowlers to various parts of the ground. In fact Ramil swung so hard he threw his back out hampering his style and was out caught with the score on 66.

Peter (41 no) after a very shaky start finally hit a boundary to bring up his 5,000th run for the Club and with young Ben Dunkerly (35 no) then set about ensuring we got to the total without further loss of wicket.

Ben and Peter put on an unbeaten 74, securing the target in 31 overs on the stroke of tea. A much deserved win for the Reds and keeps us in the hunt for the top 4.

C3 203 defeated Castle Hill 164 – heading into a challenging day of cricket, we had lost two players at late notice and were facing playing on a stinking hot day and being short with only 9 available.

Huge thanks to Cameron Bish who happily came along, fielded out of his skin (snatching a vital catch along with a number of great saves in the gully region) – you made the difference today Cam! Thanks from us all!

The opening pairing of Paul V and Dylan B snared the first two wickets early to put us in control of the day’s play. The supporting bowlers all kept excellent focus which allowed us to set aggressive fields to both restrict the Opposition’s scoring and build continued pressure.

Despite a few chances going begging, we were always in control by bowling to our plans.

The opposing batsmen never got away from us, and by tea time the result was in the bag (if we continued to work smartly).

We wrapped up win No.5 in a row around 5pm thanks to a great combined team effort.

Best of the bowlers was Dylan Bish with a couple of excellent tight spells to finish with 12 overs, 8 maidens and 2/4! Awesome bowling!

Rosey, Vink Senior and Vink Junior also collected 2 each with super tight bowling, challenging all the batsman whilst Will and Buzz picked up one apiece.

Great application from the side today, with special mention to Sam Kirkegard who stepped up to be our designated ‘keeper and did a great job behind the stumps pocketing a catch only allowing a single bye!

5 wins from the last 5 games, but importantly this is a team who is learning how to work hard to ensure we win the vital moments, which means we advance to the next round with the belief we can continue to play well and win.

D1 4/183 defeated Kissing Point 181 – Captain Diggers and Aden Hanich started off the day after seeing off the KP bowlers to close day 1 at 1/30.

After 20 overs today we raced away to 1/101 and we were well and truly in the driver’s seat.

The partnership of 102 was eventually broken after a full length delivery slipped past Ian’s defence and bowled him after a superb 40 runs, making the score 2/126. This was Ian’s 2nd 100+ run stand of the season, the Captain’s badge obviously sat well with him. It was now up to the Hanich boys to continue the solid run chase, however, Rob quickly became the next victim as he was clean bowled, Aden once again proving he’s the better Hanich.

Quan (23*) joined Aden in the middle and put on some quick runs. Aden eventually fell for 69 with the finish line in sight after a half invested pull shot was taken nicely by the square leg fielder. This was Aden’s highest score in Seniors passing his 65 last season and a very tough effort batting pretty much all day after keeping in juniors for 50 overs in the morning.

Rocket Roshan (8*) hit a quick couple of boundaries to seal a well deserved win.

Great effort in the field week 1 setup this win against the top of the table and the stubborn batting by our top 3 finished the job. Special mention to Disco Dave and some great batting from Aden and Captain Diggers led the way to another win.

How about the Digby’s. Both Ian and Matt took the Captain’s ticket this year and have filled in as Captain with their respective teams successful.

D2 135 lost to Kissing Point 9/137 – Day 2 Fred Caterson 4 required us to bowl out KP for 135 or less. We came very close by taking 9 of their wickets for 137. We bowled 63 overs with best figures being Nirav Desai who took 4 wickets for 11 runs off 14 overs. Five other bowlers took a wicket each.

Whilst this is Round 8 and we have lost 6, won one and drawn one there is no doubt that we are improving our consistency and discipline especially in our bowling. We just need a little more from the batters to get a total which can be defensible.

We managed not to lose more than 2 wickets after 35 overs this round which was a great improvement on preceding rounds. So we are heading in the right direction and let’s see if we can hit a few more runs this next round.

KP were very concerned throughout this game and our intensity was just right. We held all 6 catches which again was a great achievement. Let’s hope this marks a turn-around for the remaining matches especially the next two prior to Christmas. Well done lads!!