Round 4 – 28 October 2023 (Day 2)
Match Reports
Round 4 (Day 2)
(Saturday 21st & 28th October 2023)
A1 Grade
WPHC (Cameron) 9/185 drew with Hornsby 202
Parklands greeted us with a wet pitch, Jackson asked me to pick up a newspaper on the way to the ground.
A newspaper. To help with the drying of the ground. I lied and said the newsagent was closed. When I arrived, Hornsby has two industrial leaf blowers. “Ooo guys I have this newspaper to help” Give me a spell.
To the cricket we go, this glorious madness. Hornsby decided to bat on, despite being on 180 and knowing full well that our highest team score this year was approximately 100. They burnt about 15 overs and put on 20 odd runs, wickets to Harry Hando and Lichaaaa.
203 to get and 65 overs to get them, Krang and Tommy Hando opened the batting and got us off to a solid start. Krang hitting one of the greatest straight drives back down the ground I’ve ever seen. Where are the haters now that said he would be cemented to no 11, in any grade from A to D2? Huh?? The ball rocketed to the fence for 4.
Meanwhile off the field, Sav took a she / it in the gender neutral change room bathrooms. Assman commented that Krang looked like a modern day Phil Jacques. An obscure reference and only mildly relevant – Tommy Hando doing his best to be Greg Mail down the other end.
Back on the field and the highlights ended for Krang as he was caught behind for 6. Only 6. But he came off proud as punch about his straight drive.
After unpadding, he went to the four different social circles watching the game and relived the play by play of the shot. After which, he returned to the team with a coffee and two pieces of lime cake “how good is batting early, you get out and eat for rest of the day. This is fun”. He also dressed like a walking rainbow.
Preeds joined Tom Hando at the crease and the brakes were applied. Off the ground, mass debate raged about whether Mt Colah cricket club were still in existence. “I think they folded” said Meiks. “They sold it!!” said Assman. “Who’s buying them you dickhead!” replied Sav. We will make inquiries as to whether the Saudis have bought into the Mt Colah Super Kings.
Runs continued to tick over and we were beginning to build a base for the innings. Tom unfortunately halted that momentum, creaming one straight to mid off. This brought Assman to the middle, fresh off his giggling on the sidelines. He was a patient Ass today. However patience wasn’t a virtue, he found cover and was dismissed.
Sav came to the crease and joined Preeds and they continue to knock towards the target. It was measured batting from WPH, not something you normally see. Then, on the stroke of tea, after looking so good for the entirety of his innings, Preeds missed another straight one. He was out in the nervous 40s. The elusive A Grade 50 will await another day
Just while we are tea time, a quick word on our friend Billy Gaunt, who failed to turn up to the ground to support his team mates. Even bloody Gandis turned up, so shame on Billy for his selfishness. Perhaps he is still recovering from his performance at Gunny’s wedding last week, where he groped his dance partner in the first dance, his hand so low it raised eyebrows to everyone in the crowd.
Back to the cricket and after tea we continued to knock over the runs, batting time to put ourselves in a winning position. Cameos from Harry Hando and Dyl Bish helped Sav get us to need 60 odd in the final hour. It was gettable, even on a slow Parklands outfield
Lichaaa joined Sav but Hornsby found a gear and bowled incredibly tight. So tight that they penetrated the fortress that has been Lichaaa this year. Still 50 odd to get. Tiz joined Sav and the two began to go on a tear, getting us down to within 25 of victory. The positive momentum was squashed, when Sav hit one straight to point.
Now the question was – with no nominated batsman left, do we go for the win or block it out for a draw. With Tiz still firing on all cylinders, Captain Krang went all out attack. Tiz responded to the persuader and launched one deep into the carpark, it had everyone including Phil Hando running to try and save their cars from damage. We were 15 away, but Tiz wouldn’t see us home. Bowled.
Captain Krang rose to his feet and signalled. And just like that, off in the distance, Hollywood appeared in a great Volvo eight wheeler, immaculately placing it between the lines of the carpark at Parklands. Ladies and gentleman, the bus has been parked.
15 balls to survive and Nick Starr and Junior Ben Buzz Burrows to get us home.
It turned to 12, then 6 and young Buzz Burrows was left to face the final over. Showing wisdom beyond his years, and beyond most of your batsman 99% of the time, he fought for his wicket and blocked out all 6 balls. Nerves of steel from the young man
A draw, 2 points. We will take it, it’s better than a loss. See you next week
A2 Grade
WPHC (Campbell) drew with Sydney Lions 9/234
No play today with The Glade washes out on Friday night.
B1 Grade
WPHC Blue (Todd) 1/180 defeated ARL 178
No better feeling than points on the board. After several games where we’ve been there or thereabouts but have fallen on the wrong side of a close result, to finally take that opportunity with both hands and turn it into a convincing win is quite relieving to say the very least.
With ARL resuming at 8-150, Todd’s weekly captaincy masterstroke saw him hand off-spinner Chris Williamson the new ball, which he proceeded to almost immediately take a wicket with off an absolutely disgraceful half tracker that probably should’ve been tonked for six.
However, Willy would make up for his good luck by dropping two catches in an over off Todd as their number 11 chased runs, the final few batters adding an extra 28 to their total before Xander found the edge on his first ball to give us a chase of 179 in 56 or so overs.
There was no doubt we were in the box seat, especially at a ground such as Headen Park. But after a couple of our recent performances, everyone knew that the game was not over until the winning runs were scored.
In the end, though, only three guys were needed as the rest of us sat and watched in awe as Connor and Volc effectively dismantled the ARL bowling attack with an opening partnership of 163 before Connor, being the kind man he is, knocked one straight down mid on’s throat for the fourth time in the day to give the rest of us grubs a go. This time, though, the fielder decided to actually catch it, giving Willy the opportunity to make up for his two dropped chances in the field earlier today with the bat.
In the end, he did have a very important role to play. Although Connor’s knock of 64 brought up his second half century in two games and impressively, BOTH were at above a strike rate of fifty (well done Connor), his opening partner was approaching a historical milestone and needed all the strike necessary.
Volc, with six club centuries to his name, was 93 not out when Willy entered the fray with just sixteen runs needed. Another seven runs and Laurie Tuckerman’s record of seven centuries with our great club would be equalled.
Another classic Volc shot (anyone who has played with him knows exactly what this is) for four and a couple of singles later, Jude Boyle (unbeaten on 0 off 0 with a run a ball strike rate – source Connor Hindmarch) risked whipping out the phone to record a potentially historical milestone as he took strike to ARL’s spinner, 99 not out. After a couple of dot balls, Volc raced through a quick single to mid-on and reaped the rewards, completing a celebratory jump and salute David Warner would’ve been proud of to reach triple figures for the seventh time in a WPHCCC shirt.
In all seriousness, many congratulations Volc. A top knock and fully deserved. Was absolutely worth waiting the three and half hours in pads to witness. Here’s too many more (hopefully this season).
In true park cricket fashion, victory was sealed with a wide as we recorded our first win of the season, giving the quotient a solid little bump in the process. Just what we needed ahead of the biggest game of the season – the Sheep Station two dayer at Fortress Greenway. If you’ve got nothing on, then I’d recommend heading down because if one thing’s for sure, it’s that it’s going to be an absolute cracker.
WPHC Red (Shomik) 6/160 defeated Mt Colah 156
The batting resumed at 3/71; Shomik and Alec were keen to bat the entire day and clinically chase down the last of the 80 or so runs. It was quite a relief to have an excellent dry ground to bat on. The constant snippets of rain in the last couple of days had some of the boys worried. I had to bring the petrol blower from home just in case any wet patches had snuck onto the ends of the pitch.
Shomik and Alec looked rock solid, showing great composure and scoring runs where needed. Alec held down one end, which allowed Shomik to take the other bowlers on; Shomik looked in great touch as he achieved his second 50 for the season, going back-to-back. Shomik “I’ve been going to the gym so much” Sengupta put on an excellent performance, and it was a joy to see the man hit some well-deserved runs after all the hard work he has put into the off-season to get in the best physical shape possible.
It isn’t easy to write a report when you batted for all the day’s overs, but there were some hilarious incidents that I was involved with.
Mohsin (Umpiring) and Shomik had SO many heart palpitations as Alec “I know where my off stump is” Silins was leaving quite audaciously throughout the first couple of overs.
After Shomik was dismissed (60 @ 4/123), the next few overs with the part-time leg spinner from Mt. Colah were a blur. Think about all the things you wouldn’t get in B1 grade, and yes, they happened. We had double bouncers; we had off-pitch no balls on the full; we had over-hit sweep shots that got caught behind by a wicket-keeper who, for sure, was not looking and a run out where the wicket-keeper missed hitting the stumps with his gloves when receiving the throw-in to a batter that was a good 2-3m short of his ground.
The utter craziness and stupidity did lead to a loss of 3/15 (@ 6/140), but some excellent running between the wickets from Jaka and I meant that we got to the total, winning by 4 wickets.
It was a brilliant all-round effort from the team. Each player contributed in the best possible way and a manner suited to their style of cricket. I’m excited about the sheep station match next week.
B2 Grade
WPHC (Warren) 6/268 dec defeated Kenthurst Upper Hills 178
Ending Day 1 on 6/268, the call was made to declare and give ourselves a full day to take the 10 wickets required.
We got off to a great start with Nathaniel ‘Big Red’ Chidgey knocking out off-stump in the second over of the day. 4 overs later and Big Red once again knocked out the off stump. The opposition then dug in and saw them through to drinks.
While it’s not often you have a set of twins in one team, it is even more unusual to have 2 sets of twins in the same team!! Imagine the chances of having THREE sets of twins in 1 team. We are lucky enough to have Matt and Dan Schwartzel, Alex and Nathaniel Chidgey and now our very own ‘Spin Twins’ in Matt Digby and Rob Knapman!!
The Spin Twins started to work in tandem. Diggers bowled a ripper in his first over to remove the bails. Naps then trapped the new batsmen in front facing his first delivery the following over. Diggers picked up another, turning one through the gate. Dan then picked up a wicket in the last over before Tea.
The next session belonged to the opposition as we failed to take a wicket and the score was dragged to 6/171.
In the break there was a plan put in place to take the new ball and try some short stuff to the set batsmen. Matt Schwartzel executed the plan to perfection taking the wicket in his first wicket after drinks!
Then it was all about the pegs!! The batsmen were jumping around with Matt and Dan sending down some heat.
“Pegs! Pegs! Pegs!” was the cry!!
Dan knocked out middle stump!!!
“Pegs! Pegs! Pegs!” was the cry!!
Matt picked up and LBW!!
Matt then took the final wicket thanks to a great catch by Bishy down the leg side. Kenthurst all out in the 68th over.
How good’s cricket!
C1 Grade
WPHC (Indranil) 251 lost to St Ives Wahroonga 283
The wall has finally been broken.
Even though behind 252 runs starting Week 2, the team was very positive about getting the job done. All the talk was the weather change from last Saturday and how come winning the toss we fielded first. But getting business underway, Ved and Vishnu started off steadily without losing any wickets the first 10 overs. Ved completed a well-made 55 and good support from Vishnu 32.
Having a plan with left/right combination to bat through the end, we had hoped that ploy will go in our favor but alas that was not to happen. Some middle overs collapse got us from 1/75 to 5/127 in just a span of few overs.
However, Akith 92* and Yasith 23 took the game really deep and one point looked they would bring it home. But with just 32 runs left, the last few wickets did not support long enough for Akith to get more strike and lost by this margin.
The team prided to chase down big totals, but it was not our day today. We will come back strongly with new resolve to ensure if the toss goes our way, its sometimes better to make simple decisions.
C2 Grade
WPHC Blue (Rob) 159 lost to Mt Colah 1/59
Final scores and match report not yet to hand.
WPHC Red (Arun) 140 lost to Castle Hill 6/244 dec
Day 1:
The cricket match began on a very hot day. Captain Arun wanted to bat first because of the scorching weather, but luck wasn’t on his side. He lost the toss, and Castle Hill chose to bat first.
In the beginning, West Penno’s bowlers, Amitava and Vikas, did a great job by bowling accurately with a bit of swing. However, the Castle Hill batters handled the tough situation well. They didn’t hit many boundaries, but they kept scoring runs. Then, Arun brought in John Kurian as a new bowler, and he quickly got a wicket by catching the ball himself.
Castle Hill continued to bat steadily and ended the day with 234 runs on the scoreboard, having lost 5 wickets.
Day 2:
The second day started with hope for West Penno. Amitava took an early wicket, thanks to a fantastic catch by Saurabh. Castle Hill declared with the 244 score on the board, which seemed like a reasonable target for West Penno. However, things didn’t go as planned.
West Penno’s best batsman, Rishab, got out early. Vinos and Captain Arun tried to save the day with careful batting against the strong bowling of Castle Hill.
Captain Arun hit some good shots but then made a mistake and got out. After that, the other West Penno batsmen got out quickly. Saurabh came to the crease and played really well, and so did Brij and Amitava, who tried to defend their wickets like true test cricket batsmen.
West Penno couldn’t win the match, but they showed a positive attitude throughout the game.
Special Recognition: Saurabh, Brijesh, and Amitava for displaying remarkable patience on the field.
The next match will be against Hornsby.
C3 Grade
WPHC Red (Fieds) 187 & 5/188 defeated outright St Ives Wahroonga 52 & 155
After already bagging 6 points last week with the first innings victory, the lads were hungry for more. Eyeing the outright victory and a juicy 10 points to get us off the bottom of the ladder.
Cam (47), continued where he left off last week. After the departure of Munish (0), who took over from Pete’s last ball departure the week prior (my apologies for the reminder Pete), Cameron continued to work the ball to the 30 meter boundaries Fred Caterson has to offer.
After another late arrival we have become accustomed to, Lachlan (27) played another one of his classic innings hitting multiple boundaries including a huge 6 over cow corner, then edging the ball through to the keeper off the loopy spinner. Cameron’s innings also ended shortly after being trapped infront LBW, which saw the bash brothers Nathan F (39*) and Jack M (47) meet each other in the middle.
Both combined for a whopping 90 runs in 6.3 overs including 15 boundaries, 7 of which were 6’s and 3 lost balls. Jack used his valuable nets practice with Nath to his advantage, only taking 1 over to hit the spinner out of the attack after a slog sweep for 6.
That shot set the tone for the rest of the innings with Nathan and Jack continuing the carnage with Nathan playing the shot of the day which included a huge 6 down the ground into the bushes, narrowly missing a few parked cars. Jack followed suit with a few slogs of his own down the ground and through cow corner.
With Jack 40* at the drinks break, he used all his time off the field to convince Pete to not declare and bat for 2 more overs in order to secure his first 50. With Pete obliging, the scene was set, Nathan on strike. First ball, single, Jack was back on strike. Waiting for something full from Michael’s cousin Dan, Jack was surprised to receive a half tracker, +6 runs and another lost ball.
However the break whilst searching for the ball must’ve put Jack off his game with him only hitting a single next ball. Nathan was back on strike and Jack gave him simple instructions, play out the rest of the over so he stays on strike. This was met with choice words from the bowler who stated “Is that because you don’t want to face me“, shocking chat from a bloke who’d been hit for 6 only 2 balls prior.
With Jack back on strike for the final over before the inevitable declaration, he only needed 3 runs for his first 50. The phones were out with 4 separate cameras capturing Jack slice the ball straight up to the bowler to be dismissed for 47 caught and bowled. Another victim of the phone curse after being captured skying one on 49 only a season prior.
Our job with the bat was done, 5-188 setting St Ives a mammoth target of 325 for the second innings victory and giving ourselves 50 overs to bowl them out.
Fired up from last week on the back of a whopping 8 wickets Pat, 2-49 continued where he left off, taking 2 quick wickets to complete his 10 wicket haul, the man who played second fiddle to Pat in the first innings Jack, 4-16 decided to get in the on the action by taking another, leaving St Ives reeling once more at 3-11 after 9 overs. With his wicket cemented into West Penno folklore, the result of a screamer by Naughty Nath who has now taken 5 catches in his career, 2 coming off Jacks bowling in his elustrious 10 year career.
With only 2 minutes until tea, the boys rushed through to get another over in. After an uneventful first 4 balls, Dan West edged one along the ground through the self-proclaimed best fielder in the district, Michael’s legs. Michael decided to tactically let the ball go in order to recover and get a throw in, Michaels plan had worked, leaving both batsmen bamboozled forcing a mix up and on the back of a bullet throw and quick reflexes from Cam, St Ives were short of their ground. The runout left them 4-25 with only 5 wickets left to take as St Ives were one short.
Nath W (1-46) off 10 decided to get off the sideline and contribute to the game, rather than score for 70 overs and witness his cousin take 8 in an innings. Both himself, Michael (0-16) and other well renowned bludger Shaq (1-9) decided to take over the reins after Tea, bowling 15+ overs between themselves.
Naughty Nath broke the deadlock as the pressure from Magic Mickey West and Shaq told, with Nathan celebrating his wicket before the catch was even taken.
St Ives then steadied, with Michael’s cousin and another slogger combining for 50+ runs.
This called for the stud of the day, Jack to wrap up the innings. His second of the day coming off a catch from Cam, near identical to the one Nath took, followed by clean bowling Dan West prompting another send off, before finishing off the innings by bowling the final St Ives batsman.
All out for 155, falling short by 170+ runs to secure the outright and moving us away from the wooden spoon position.
WPHC Blue (Mat) 9/238 dec defeated Kissing Point 160
After an excellent first day, the skipper decided to declare on 9/238 giving us more overs to defend the total.
Fin and John opened the bowling with the boys tying the opposition up getting a few edges that found their way through the slip cordon. With Fin hurting his foot it was time for a bowling change with Mic steaming in getting the ball straight on the money.
Kissing Point was having a block-athon, so it was time for a bowling change and the skipper came onto bowl. Mat was on the spot straight away after his 60km bike ride. With some good keeping from Bronson, we should’ve had a stumping, but the umpire was too busy looking at his counter and not the game.
Kissing Point was 0/46 off 20 overs at the 1st drinks. Some great fielding from Mic led to confusion with the batsman as Mic whipped the ball into Bronson who then through the ball to the bowler’s end and led to a run-out.
The wickets kept on coming with Mat getting the next one with good hands from Marty in the slips. Rob got the next one with a good catch from Rizul. Mat was ripping and tearing as he picked up another 2 wickets and Rizul his first one for the day after bowling accurately for once and another terrific catch from Marty in the slips. D.C was bowling very well giving the batsman nothing. Rizul should’ve had another one with a good stumping from Bronson, but the umpire disagreed and gave it not out.
KP were 5/108 at the tea break. Another blockathon came on to bat which was when James had been released on to have a bowl, getting a wicket in his first over. James continued to trouble the batsman picking up another wicket with an incredible catch from Bronson at Long off, which left the batsman blown away. Bronson came onto bowl who picked up a wicket off some dodgy bowling and a great catch from fin at deepish cover. John decided he had enough of the blockathan and set the batsman up beautifully with a fast bouncer and then a soldier ball taking out the top of off.
Kissing Point was bowled out for 160 with credit to John who got 1/16 off 11 overs with a 1.45 economy rate, MIc finished on 0/24 off 9 with tight bowling, Mat got 3/24 off 11 overs, Rob finished on 1/20 off 6, Riz finished on 1/14 off 7, Dave with 0/7 off 8 with an economy rate of 1.14, James with 2/11 off 3, and Bronson with 1/12 off 2.
West Penno Blue Won by 77 runs, on the back of some tight bowling and great catching and fielding at the Home of cricket.
C4 Grade
WPHC Blue (Hiresh) TBA lost to Beecroft 9/329
After a not so good day in the field at Cheltenham Oval last week and a good batting performance from Beecroft, the boys were still confident that we could pull off a big chase of 330.
The rain during the week wasn’t ideal as the outfield was slightly damp, contrasted to the hot dry and fast conditions that we bowled in the week before. The cool and damp conditions meant their bowlers wouldn’t tire as quickly and we wouldn’t have the advantage of the ball being scuffed from the sandy surface quite as quickly as it did for us.
We started off at 0/0 after having a look at two of their bowlers for 4 overs last week, so a new day, new innings, we knew exactly what the task at hand was and what was required of us. Hiresh and Meet continued their opening partnership from where it left off last week. Meet was taking over the opening duties and was looking solid to start off. A good partnership was built and a very good foundation for the run chase was made as we sat at 0/66 at the first drinks break. Unfortunately Meet was bowled a few overs after the break for a good 19.
They seemed to have an abundance of pace bowlers, but our batters didn’t seem troubled until unfortunately Hiresh ran himself out for 48, a bit guilty of ball watching as it fell short of a catch. Eamon came in and hit a nice boundary before getting out the next ball. Mukund and Sparsh had a nice partnership of 40 runs, both looking steady until Mukund was caught for 14. Ratul survived a few overs before getting bowled for 2 runs on the verge of tea.
At this point, we were 5/151 and we weren’t sure whether to continue our chase or block it out for the draw. Batters Sparsh and Sach were convinced we should try to go for the win until they get out, and so we did. Both of them were very positive after the break, until they both fell to the same bowler 2 overs apart. At this point, we very much had the win out of sight and were trying to draw the game. Renesh and Parin were at the crease and controlled the game nicely.
Parin was bowled for 7, then in stepped Shanks at #10. He did well to hang around for a while before getting caught LBW on the backfoot to spin. Kunal was our final batter, he had to survive 55 more minutes, so things were looking tough as Beecroft looked to speed up the overs.
Both remaining batsmen did very well to last as long as they did in tough conditions with an extremely tight field and picked up some runs along the way. Unfortunately Kunal was out LBW with 20 minutes on the last ball of the 76th over, immediately after Beecroft elected for the new ball.
Great effort from Renesh (24*) and Kunal (9) as they both finished with their highest scores in only their second and first seasons respectively.
So close yet so far, a tough start for West Penno’s season this year (4-0), but the boys have not lost confidence as there were positives to take out of the performance as always. We hope to unlock our potential next game and claim our first win of the year against Kissing Point.
P.S. Parin exerted his dominance over one of Beecroft’s youngsters by saying “Good bowling Champ!” as we shook hands at the end of the match.
C4 Red (Ross S) 177 lost to Kenthurst Upper Hills 7/178
Readers this is one of the most difficult match reports I have had to write in a while, whilst trying to do so with the level of humility required when the opposition scores more runs than you.
Suffice to say when you generate more than 10 wickets in a game, play a solid game of cricket and lose by just couple of wickets it is difficult to take. The lads should hold their heads up high even though the result fell on the wrong side of the ledger.
Today’s equation was simple take 10 wickets for less than 148 runs. Our opening bowlers were brilliant….Ram and Mridal bowling a tight line giving away nothing. Again frustrating that the batters followed on from day 1 defending the ball a number of times with their pads rather than their bat in front of the stumps.
Break through came finally in the 6th over of the day from a Mridal full ball hit to Darren at mid wicket….kuh 1/36. First change spin was then introduced with immediate impact with Muthindra taking 3 quick wickets catches to Henry and a second catch to Darren…… and to finish things off one uprooting middle stump….Then a beauty from Gihan again uprooting middle stump to get rid of the KUH established opener, Kuh 5/81 at the drinks break and us right on top…..
Unfortunately after drinks things changed…the KUH batters went on the attack, a couple of missed opportunities. A solid partnership of 70 finally broken by Mridal breaking the stumps yet again, 6/151 and we still felt we were in it with KUH needing another 27 runs…
Now readers this is where I need to be very careful with what I say….I want to give kudos to Sufs keeping as in the next over one ball taken off the gloves and a few balls later a big outside edge…both given not out….batter then hits 4/6/4 before being cleaned up by Mridal….7/165..
Ram and Mridal bowling beautifully but frustrating spells …again several LBW shouts turned down…and KUH crawling through the last 9 overs to score 13 runs needed.
Really good bowling by Muthindra 3/27 (8), Mridal 3/48 (20), Gihan 1/20 (11). Ram bowled 2 great spells 0/14 (12) and was VERY unlucky not to have a few in the wickets column.
As I said, the lads felt really let down today by some interesting reasoning as to why certain appeals were not given. Never the less the skipper was really proud of our bowling and fielding effort today. I know our frustrations did boil over on a few occasions, but we do need control our emotions when things don’t go our way.
D1 Grade
WPHC Blue (Agniva) 251 lost to Thornleigh 5/278
Tough day in the office! That perfectly sums up how the team felt at the end of the day with Fortress Thornleigh still remaining invincible. We had everything we needed to wrap Thornleigh up – perfect weather conditions, a strong bowling attack and the zeal to maintain the top of the ladder position. However, Thornleigh had other plans after doing their homework.
We knew the ground would be lightning quick even after a bit of a mid-week rain (after a Friday morning inspection), so we decided to use our swing specialist in Siby to start of the proceedings. Praneel from the other end kept giving no chances to the batters but all that they did was wait for the loose deliveries and routed them to all sides of the park.
So much so that at the first drinks break, Thornleigh were bolting at 0-102. The second session proved to be the toughest with runs free flowing and none of our bowlers could do much and to add to the pain, the fielding left a lot to be desired.
After the tea break with Thornleigh at 1-180 with the only success coming from Rohan’s maiden wicket for WPHC via a caught and bowled, we knew something magical needed to happen.
After a quick team huddle, the ball was given to two of our youngest quicks in Lakshya and Praneel. What eventuated, made the captain think about his decision of not bringing this pair in earlier. Some incredible bowling from both ends saw Thornleigh 5 down in no time with still about 40 odd to get, 4 wickets to Lakshya but Praneel definitely got a bit unlucky to end without any.
Thornleigh eventually stuck in there and passed the target with about 7 overs to spare. All up a good game but not the result we were hoping for. Time to regroup and fight it out against Kissing Point next round and establish ourselves on the top of the ladder.
WPHC Red (Diggers) V/6/270 defeated St Ives Wahroonga 268
After a great first day, stand-in Captain Quan was quick to declare at the start of play and sent St Ives into bat.
Disco and Nandit opened the bowling and scoring was kept to a minimum for the first 20 overs. At drinks St Ives had crawled to 0/29 and we expected to be in for a long day in the outfield.
The first wicket finally fell in the 32nd over with Farjad bowling some great spin and continued to restrict St Ives’ run rate to 1/67. Farjad also picked up the second wicket in the 36th over and we felt we were in control of the game.
However St Ives’ next two batsman put on a 94 run partnership in 23 overs to put them in a strong position, but two wickets in the one over by Daanish turned the game back in our favour and St Ives were 4/178 in the 59th over still needing 93 runs.
St Ives continued to build partnerships and the runs continued to flow and they edged towards the required total.
Great bowling from the Mahmud brothers, Farjad (4/62) & Daanish (3/55), kept us in the game, but St Ives only required 15 runs off the last 3 overs with 2 wickets in hand for the victory.
Inspired captaincy by stand-in Quan had Surendra (1/29) and Nandit (2/24) bowl the last few overs with Nandit bowling their final batsman out on a total score of 268.
A great game to be involved in with the advantage ebbing and flowing throughout the day.
A few special mentions to Gus for his great keeping, Harry for running the equivalent of a half-marathon fielding in the deep and a special mention to Tim, who came halfway through the day on his game off to help in the field!
D2 Grade
WPHC (Roger) 209 defeated Berowra 68 & 2/65
Having scored 209 last week we set about bowling Berowra out for 68 to give us our first (first Innings) win of the season
Balaraman Raghuraman 4-12, Manraj Singh 2-24, Danel McEwen 3-15 and Vishaal Nathan 1-5 did the damage.
We then asked Berowra to follow on so we could give all of our bowlers a little practice. After 27 overs with all 10 outfield players having bowled we called the game off with Berowra 2 -65.