Round 5 – 4 November 2023 (Day 1)
Match Reports
Competition – Round 5 (Day 1)
(Saturday 4th & 11th November 2023)
A1 Grade
WPHC (Cameron) 9/190 Vs Kenthurst
Match Report to follow.
A2 Grade
WPHC (Campbell) 2/19 Vs Normanhurst 202
Disaster struck A2s on the eve of the game.
Skipper Campbell got the call up to A Grade. Well deserved, but that meant the one thing that all A2 team members dread. Three words that can send a shudder through anyone at this great club.
Justin. Edwards. Captain.
Not since the assassination of JFK has such a leadership void been felt so acutely.
Like the American people of 1963, A2s were scared, upset and deeply mourning the loss of their popular leader.
Captain Gumby actually won the toss and sent Normo in with grey skies and a Glade deck that would do a bit.
Sammy Hando (today’s only Hando) used the variable bounce in the pitch to perfection, bowling a full toss to take a wicket with the second ball of the day.
Three top order wickets from Dean in a very nice spell, including a catch at first slip from Justin, rarer than a Brent Larkham joke that’s funny.
Matty/Patty/Phatty Phillip/Mills/Millip took two excellent catches, Normo bowled out and we’d have 9 overs to face at the end of the day.
In his newfound leadership role, Justin selflessly asked himself to open the batting.
He made a classy duck. A true Captains knock.
Dismissed batters Justin and Brent have near on a month to think about their dismissals, with two bye weeks for us after this game.
On behalf of A2s, we hope our star batters Campbell and Shaan did well in A1 Grade, but we’d also like them back please and thank you.
B1 Grade
WPHC Blue (Todd) 0/7 Vs WPHC Red (Shomik) 173
The much anticipated R5 Sheep Station game started under gloomy, drizzling & overcast conditions. When Shomik won the toss and & the outcome was revealed, never seen a bigger cheer from a side losing the toss and asked to field.
Understandably so, since their skip was unavailable for WK2 and in retrospect, I should have listened to Todd and avoiding walking 300 steps from balcony to the field for an irrelevant toss!
Anyways, after a 15 min delayed start, Reds had a bright little opening partnership of 23 with Amanpreet(16) playing couple of powerful shots & Jr Hanich (8) displaying his solid potential in a brief but pretty innings. Post that came a 5 over spell of horror which saw the Reds being reduced to 33/4, with the wickets of openers, Kapil & Harsh falling to the Hutchinson’s. Jack being the one more threatening with his skiddy & nippy bowling on a wet surface & overcast (understatement!) conditions.
Then came a counterattacking & promising partnership between Shomik (38) & Jaka (35) with both striking in the mid 70’s and playing some crisp shots throughout the innings. Both inning although promising, either didn’t last long enough, which resulted in another mini collapse which saw the scores change from 90/4 to 111/7. Again the Hutchinson’s being the destructors in chief & Jr Burrows scalping my wicket with a smart change of angle, yielding immediate success!
Then came the rearguard effort for the ages!
Pranay “Inzy” Hegde ocupied the crease for 101 balls to score a Valiant 41 (Last batter out) & forging 3 back to back 20 odd runs partnership. Muditha played a quick cameo of 13 for the 1st one. Next Amit (4) played a gutsy knock supporting Inzy for 22 balls & finally Neil ” The Stylish” Kalra (6*) played some exquisite looking solid defensive blocks and a pull for the cameras. Inzy, who was given a death stare by the skip while crossing each other after the later’s dismissal, with a stern message to just be out there till the end get the team to safe shores. And Boy did he deliver! Playing his best innings for a while and showing a glimpse of his skills and his much talked about “Lazy Elegance” was on true display!
The Hutchinson’s taking 8 wickets home, with Jack taking a well-deserved Fifer & Chris bowling steady 10 overs of spin & a solitary wicket. With 170 odd on the board after opting to bat on a tricky, we are pumped to give it our all out there in the last 5 overs remaining for the day.
Mohsin & Shomik bowled 5 tidy overs, with the Blue’s scoring 7 off them with losing any poles. This sets us up for an enthralling & hopefully entertaining Wk2.
B2 Grade
WPHC (Warren) 8/249 Vs Normanhurst Warrawee
As we arrived to Normanhurst on what was a day that no one wants to play cricket. (Intermittently raining, cold and windy) The boys stood around the wicket once again questioning why on earth we play cricket. Alas Captain Matthew ‘Pigby’ Digby won the toss, elected to bat and everyone was a little bit happier.
DJ ‘gone fishing outside off stump’ Garrett and Zac ‘best turner’ Turner started the day strong. Compiling a nice little partnership of 80 odd before DJ decided he would rather go fishing, getting bowled inside edging a ball on 6th stump or wider. Not to worry though we still had a solid foundation.
Unfortunately though, Cam ‘rock the boat’ Bish and Ray ‘rock the boat’ Khamis just weren’t in the mood. Departing for well earned ducks. 3/80 odd not looking so fantastic.
Enter Nick ‘all you need to be good is to spend $1,200 on a bat’ Duck. Nick and Zac got to work steadying the shit with a solid 50 run partnership before Nick departed. Zac was joined by Adam ‘here for a good time’ Van Sarlooser who departed swiftly after despatching his first ball for 6.
Zac worked the singles and despatched the ball at the other end before strangling one down the leg side and decided not to walk until Ray explicitly said not out. You’re a Wally Zac.
Dan ‘doctor pastor Martin Sempa’ Schwartzel then finished the innings with an excellent 50.
We will resume on 8/249 before having a crack with the ball.
Other news:
- Nicholas Duck got caught cooking the books
- Billy Gaunt still a shit bloke (anecdotes to come next week)
C1 Grade
WPHC (Indranil) 179 Vs Sydney Lions
We arrived to some drizzle at Glenhaven Oval and very long grass on a bumpy outfield.
Captain Indranil lost the toss and we were put into bat. Ved got away to a rapid start hitting two sixes in the first over followed by a four the next over but our hot start would not continue as we slipped to 3/21. A rebuilding partnership of over 50 between Cam (25) and Akith (75) steadily built as Sydney Lions bowled some decent areas. After Cam fell for 25 hacking it across the line and getting bowled, Ollie (42) walked in and hit a fluid 42 to add another 50+ partnership with Akith.
Unfortunately, a disastrous collapse of 6/9 followed as we slipped from 4/170 to 179 all out, which consisted of poor shots to slow bowling and two run-outs.
The common theme for the Sydney Lions bowling attack was slow, floating balls travelling at school zone paces which we did not take advantage of this week and a slow outfield which didn’t help the cause to pile on the runs.
Special thanks to old mate bowling with two bright yellow sweatbands on a 19℃ day in C grade who would complain at wides that were bowled off the pitch and would appeal for lbw off balls middled back to him.
Good opportunity for us to bowl well next week and bounce back from our loss last week.
C2 Grade
WPHC Blue (Rob) Vs Bye
No game this match.
WPHC Red (Arun) 289 Vs Hornsby
Match Report – Day 1
It was a day that held uncertain weather forecasts of rain, but the cricket spirits were undeterred.
Despite the overcast sky and fading light, both teams, “friends Vs. friends” and “son against father,” eagerly gathered on the ground. The anticipation was intense, especially with the father-son duo of Vinod (father) and Adi (Son) on opposing sides, adding an extra layer of intrigue to the match.
Arun won the toss and chose to bat first, sticking to the team’s strategy. Vinod and Arun walked out as the opening pair, displaying solid composure and vigilance. The crowd was in for an intense moment when Adi opened the bowling against his father.
After observing a few overs, Arun decided to break free and unleash his natural game. He began his innings by smashing a six off Adi, followed by a boundary. While Arun started finding boundaries all around the ground, Vinod, at the other end, exhibited tremendous patience by giving Arun most of the strike. Their partnership flourished until Arun made the wrong choice of shot in the 19th over and was dismissed after scoring a brilliant 40. Soon after, Vinod also departed.
With the opening pair back in the pavilion, Hari and Rishab took the crease. Both batsmen displayed an array of powerful shots, with Rishab in his element, striking sixes and boundaries, while Hari thoroughly accumulated runs through singles and doubles. In one memorable over, Hari smashed four boundaries, one of which stood out as the shot of the day. Rishab, however, couldn’t stay at the crease for long and was dismissed in the 28th
over after scoring 25 runs.
From that point, it was the “Hari show.” Hari demonstrated that patience and determination could lead to success. He not only built his innings by hitting shots all over the field and taking singles, doubles, and even triples, but he also carried the innings almost to the end, eventually reaching his well-deserved “Century”.This is our 530th Club ton and the 10th this season.
Brij, Saurabh, Rommel, Koleth, and others provided him valuable support from the other end. As the innings concluded, Koleth played some crucial shots and added a couple of boundaries, helping West Penno post a formidable total of 289 runs on the board for Hornsby to chase the next day.
After the innings, Vinod organised a celebratory round of beers to mark Adi’s 21st birthday. The Hornsby and West Penno players joined in the festivities, putting aside their fierce competition for a moment of camaraderie.
In a special comment, Captain Arun praised Hari as the “Hero of the Day” and congratulated him on his well-played century, emphasising the age-old adage that “patience is the mother of all virtues.”
Hari’s outstanding performance had indeed defined the day, and both teams celebrated not only their cricketing success but also the bond that unites friends, family, and rivals on the cricket field.
C3 Grade
WPHC Red (Fieds) 1/8 Vs Castle Hill 221
Over the years, the WPHCCC match reports have evolved from the old standard session-by-session commentary (calling out the key wickets or milestones made) to the new wave of gibberish (with bizarre nicknames and stories of What Happened on the Way to the Game) that we see these days from the ever-burgeoning millennial crowd.
That’s all well and good, but what needs to be stamped out is the shameless self-promotion made by the writer of the previous C3 Red match reports who managed to make no less than 20 call-outs to himself across the past 2 reports. As a consequence, he’s been removed from writing today’s report, which will give him time to have a good hard look at himself and perhaps learn to stop hitting the J, A, C & K keys on his laptop with such regularity.
What you need to know about today is that it was a punishing day in the field.
If you’ve played at Caddies Creek, you’ll know that it’s a batting paradise that gives the bowler little room for error. We found that any ball dropped slightly short got the treatment. Nevertheless, we chipped away all day taking wickets in clumps at times, then putting up with long partnership periods at other times.
Yeah – I’m starting to fall asleep myself writing this clobber, so a few highlights for the avid readers:
- Dinesh (our elder statesmen & 2nd or 3rd favourite brown person in the team), decided that he is now of first nations’ decent, and regaled us with a new land claim every time he picked out a ball that was dispatched to the bushes. We look forward to ‘Uncle Dinesh’ starting us off next week with a Welcome to Country & perhaps a smoking ceremony (you can use one of Feathers’ 8 pairs of RM Williams jeans – he won’t miss one… then again…)
- Nightwatchman Naughty Nathan was given a chance to open the batting in the dying stages, after the majority of the team slunk away complaining of injuries or general cowardice. He managed to survive 3 balls before his dismissal without scoring. His nasty team mates then punished him by chucking the scorebook at him & making him fill in his own dismissal. Ouch.
Best of the bowlers were Ja… with 4-for & Pat with 3-for. On to next week where we reckon we can make it back-to-back wins and start to nurdle our way up the table.
WPHC Blue (Mat) 3/305 Vs Sydney Lions
Another great weekend for West Penno blue with the bat.
Winning the toss the Sydney Lions opted to bowl first. The two young blokes Bronson Marsden and Rizul Gulati opened the batting for West Penno Blue, both building into their innings with some classy strokes putting early pressure on the Sydney Lions.
Continuing from where he left off from last week, Rizul found his feet early with some classy cover drives and pull shots with his partner at the other end nicely turning over the strike and pouncing on anything short. Rizul brought his half century up shortly followed by Bronson, both of them looking in good nick as they continued to pile on the partnership.
Bronson was the first one out after scoring a classy 56 that consisted of sublime stroke play and smart batting.
The openers managed to put on a 146 partnership that saw West Penno well in front of the game. This is also a new Club C3 Grade opening record partnership beating the previous record of 110 set way back in 2005.
After sitting in the dug out for almost 3 hours, Brent had his turn to bat, however was unfortunate to chop on to his stumps for a duck that brought the skipper Mat Marsden into the crease.
Although they had their tails up, Sydney Lions struggled to bowl to the veteran left hander who was scoring his runs as if it was a T20. The runs kept flowing for West Penno with the partnership building nicely.
Batting on 99 Rizul punched a single thought the covers region to bring up his maiden century, topping it off with a Kohli celebration.
Shortly after drinks Mat brought up his quick fire 50. The runs were flowing nicely, with Rizul bringing up his 150 on the last over of the days play.
With just 2 balls left in the day, a straight ball wrapped Mat on the pads to dismiss him after a well-made 79 off 82 balls consisting of 7 boundaries.
At the end of the days play, Rizul remains not out on 150 after batting for 5 hours with the team ending on 3-305 after 73 overs.
C4 Grade
WPHC Blue (Hiresh) 1/33 Vs Kissing Point 194
As we arrived at Mimosa Oval, the weather looked pretty gloomy as the rain started pelting down. Eventually it cleared, and the radar was looking promising so we got to work sweeping the pitch. Miraculously we were able to start on time and the outfield and pitch were pretty dry, and the air humid. Not the best ground to play on, an uneven outfield, a weirdly angled pitch and some random benches in front of the fence were the obstacles we had to overcome.
Captain Hiresh intentionally lost the toss once again, knowing Kissing Point would make the wrong decision. Indeed it seemed to be a successful outcome as we were sent in to field, and bowling conditions seemed pretty good.
We started the day with some economical bowling from Sparsh and Eamon. In the 4th over, Eamon managed to hit the man they called ‘Ginger Spice’ right in the helmet before getting him caught behind the next ball. On came Mukund and Sach, who bowled in a lethal partnership, with the ball moving wildly. We allowed a few boundaries so they were 1/57 at the first drinks break.
In comes the legendary Mukund to continue his spell immediately after drinks. On his first ball of the over, an excellent delivery hits the Kissing Point captain on the pads before bowling him (he was probably out LBW as well anyways).
In walks their number four. Another amazing delivery on the batsmen’s toes has him plumb LBW and Mukund is on a hat-trick! Next ball, once again another amazing delivery on the pads as we all went up for the appeal, unfortunately not given. One more dot ball passes. Then once again Mukund strikes, clean bowling the new batter on the top of the sumps for another duck. A game changing triple-wicket maiden for Mukund leaves the opposition 4/57. Not too long after, Sachman joined in and had their set batsmen caught at in the deep on the leg-side. The boys were now full of energy after a motivational speech from the man himself, Sparsh.
Kissing Point put on a good 5th wicket partnership of 83, as we let through too many boundaries, but a good performance from their number seven to pick up a 50. The energy had dropped a little since our last wicket, leading Eamon to experience his first voice crack as he exclaimed “Come on boys, no one’s tAAALking.” Kissing Point was 5/115 at Tea.
There was some commentary coming from the sideline with one of the opposition’s “friends” calling out “West Pennant Hills is crumbling” shortly before we took another 2 wickets from Shankar’s experienced bowling. Some shocking running allowed us to get an easy run out before Sparsh joined the party to get a deserved wicket. Unfortunately we disappointingly leaked another 38 runs before Shankar finally got us the last wicket. Kissing Point all out for 194, Mukund 3/36 (12), Shankar 3/20 (4.3).
The change of innings fell perfectly at the final drinks break of the day, leaving us with 16 overs to play. Hiresh fell for 4 in the 5th over as he got caught LBW. Sparsh (14) and Mukund (7) currently are still in at the end of days play as they managed to start a nice partnership. We finished up at 1/33. 162 more runs to get and a full-day next week.
The boys are fired up and ready to get our first win of the season.
A sensible batting performance should see us achieve this feat. Hopefully it’ll be like 35° next week.
C4 Red (Ross S) 0/9 Vs Beecroft White 9/350 dec
Overcast but dry conditions at Northholm Grammar when we arrived. The skipper won his 3rd toss in a row and had no hesitation bowling in cool conditions hoping the ball would move around, and it did.
Mridal opened the bowling and a beautiful in-swinger took an inside edge 5th ball of the day. Well caught by Raynaldo. Beecroft 1-1 a great start. Both Gihan and Mridal bowled beautiful initial spells, but solid batting and no chances. A change in fortunes in the 16th over with a big slash wide outside off stump from Anands bowling and another great catch low do to Raynaldo…Beecroft 2/35.
Rey from Robs c2 team was able to dry up the runs from 1 end , but the batters were intent on taking as many runs as they could from the other. Our bowling was really good, but the batters were just a bit better. Spin was finally introduced at the 24 over mark with immediate impact . A good catch by Gihan bowled Henry 3-79….
Just before the tea break another breakthrough by Muthindra, and a well judged catch to Suf, then a mix up with the batting pair with a great throw from Rey in the outfield to the keeper to run out their heavily scoring opener. At the tea break Beecroft 5/134.
Talk at tea was to keep the intensity in the field and keep bowling stump to stump. Things were looking good with Rey taking a well-deserved wicket, another catch to Raynaldo with the 4th ball after tea and no runs added.
Looking at the Beecroft batting order though it was always going to be tough. Over the previous games they had mixed up their order, today their lower order had score several scores over 50…..at more than a run a ball so we were weary. In the end no surprises. The tail end batsmen were as good if not better than their top 5.
We did not help ourselves missing a few catches in the field….and our ground fielding was atrocious at times, but we were up against an opposition that was way too good for us and hit the ball very hard. Big hitting better than you usually ever see in our grade.
Their last 4 batters put on 200 runs in 22 overs, belting us all around and out of the park. Can’t say our bowling was bad. They were just too good, with their number 11 batting as good as anyone and scoring 50 no off just 22 balls, and number 7, 106no off just 80 balls. 2 lost balls hit out of the ground. Times like today when you wonder how the rating system works when we see batters as good as today with ratings so low.
Never the less the Highlight of the last hours play was a real good spell of bowling by Mohan with 2 wickets and 1 to Gihan….
Beecroft declared 9/350 off 60 overs, giving us 7 overs to survive.
Wicket takers Mridal 2-54(12), Mohan 2-48(6), and 1 each to Rey, Gihan, Muthindra, Henry and Anand. 3 catches to Raynaldo, and 1 each to Gihan and Suf.
Raynaldo and Mridal played solidly against some hostile bowling. Reds finishing the day at 0/9
D1 Grade
WPHC Blue (Agniva) 7/156 Vs Kissing Point
After 8 weeks of cricket this season, the woeful luck with the toss continued for the Blues and we were put in to bat.
Ravi & Chintan opened the proceedings and were looking in solid knick before Chintan was wrapped in the pads.
Anubhav then arrived at the crease and with him carried all his form the R4 ton! With brilliant support from Ravi at the other end to see off the new ball, Anubhav unleashed a flurry of boundaries (8 x 4’s) before falling to a stunning catch by a KP fielder for 34.
We then had a rather long rain delay which made us lose 16 overs from the day and the break concluded with a couple of us making a quick little trip to Bunnings for the sawdust (we were the away team btw).
After a couple more quick dismissals Waman took charge of the situation and played a knock which took us back down the memory lane and was a treat to watch. Lachlan Woolnough (our fill in for this week from C3) on the other end was building a nice little inning of his own through some crafty cover drive and lofted shots behind the bowler.
They ended with 37 & 25 respectively and a nice 52 run partnership. With the blues down to 7 with about 15 overs left in the day’s play, Agniva & Lakshya saw us through to stumps but with about 7 overs left in the day when the Captains decided to call it due to bad light.
With still some more batting to follow, we return next week to a hopefully warmer day of cricket and get some more runs on the board before we go and defend.
WPHC Red (Diggers) Vs Hornsby 300
After a couple of good wins we headed out to Arcadia to test ourselves against a very strong Hornsby side.
Diggers lost the toss and we found ourselves in the field.
Things started well with Nandit and Disco bowling very well and we soon had both of the openers caught behind and another wicket soon followed. 3/42 after 13 became 3/64 at the first drinks break.
We missed a couple of tough chances off the next two batters and, once in, they cashed in and by tea, Hornsby were 4/147. We managed to get the Hornsby captain cheaply but this brought another burglar to the crease.
Their number 7 would probably be at home in a c2 side and he dispatched some pretty good bowling to all parts of the ground.
His batting partner ended up retiring on 110 and when we finally got the no. 7 out, they were 9 for 300. We got the final wicket in the last over of the day so we’ll be chasing 302 to win next Saturday.
Our bowlers were great today, particularly with a ball that was pretty much a cake of soap after 10 overs.
Disco was the star, finishing with 5/76 off 21. Nandit wasn’t far behind with 2/41 off 16 and the other two wickets went to Ross and Adi. Young Harry bowled without luck and took an amazing diving catch at mid wicket.
All in all, today was one of those days where you question your love of cricket. Fun to start and fun at the end but some crappy times in between.
D2 Grade
WPHC (Roger) 175 Vs Castle Hill
After losing the toss and being asked to bat. We batted conservatively in an attempt to bat long rather than put ourselves under pressure by losing wickets early. This worked to some degree as we managed to reach a score of 175 all out by the end of the day.
Dan McEwen top scored with 33 and Roger Friend who stubbornly scored 25 helped us along.
We will need a strong bowling performance next week to defend that score on the tight Fed Caterson 4 ground.