Match Reports

Competition – Round 5 (Day 2)

(Saturday 4^th & 11^th November 2023)

A1 Grade

WPHC (Cameron) 9/192 dec defeated Kenthurst 150

34 degrees and humidity greeted us to the renovated Kenthurst park and day 2 had us fielding an under strength side. After a Melbourne Cup team function during the week, many entered the day recovering from heavy gastro, vomiting, diarrhoea – the works.

Confronting whilst eating your morning Corn Flakes? Perhaps. But it’s important you know.

The Monkey Bar at Chatswood should be reported to the health department as Belly, Lichaa, Preeds and Gas all went down like shot ducks. With that knowledge, and the sweltering day forecast, Captain K declared. We were fielding, defending 195.

To the cricket we go, this glorious madness. Krang and Lichaaa opened us up, Lichaaa fresh off losing 5kg during the week. We set aggressive fields looking for wickets and Kenthurst took the bait – but batted well and kept the scoreboard ticking over. Runs kept flowing when Gas, Preeds and Meiks were introduced.

This part was more like a blur, it was so hot. Apollo Creed was giving us the one two punch, over and over and over. Kenthurst raced to 0/90 and victory seemed almost certain for them. But then, when all hope was lost, a glimmer of the pulse appeared.

Getting us off the canvas at the 9 count was Meiks, who bowled a beautiful leggie that seriously almost bounced twice getting to the batsman. J Mac took a great catch on the rope. We were given a very slight sniff.

1 turned to 2 turned to 3 turned to 4, with Lichaaa and Sav continuing the momentum set by Meiks to begin to railroad the chase. It was around this point that Gandis, running his hardest sprinting in pursuit of a ball, went down like he was hit by a sniper. The opposition had emergency services on standby. It looked grim… until Gandis stood up a minute later and resumed play like nothing had happened.

The Enrique Iglesias Hero of the day however was Andrew Meikle.

He was smashed in his first spell but he bounced back and rolled through the Kenthurst line up. He had 5 – which DOES NOT qualify for a trophy at the end of season, so he went one better. He finished with 6 of the best to win the game for WPHCCCC, a win we desperately needed.

Spirits were high after the game, so high that Assman whipped out his Calvin Klein deodorant for us to share. God he is so cool

A2 Grade

WPHC (Campbell) 154 lost to Normanhurst 202

“Only you could do this. Freak.” – Virat Kohli

“Something we are going to be talking about for a very long time.” – Ricky Ponting

“Has always been the most exciting player in the world to watch in my opinion.” – Adam Gilchrist.

Now, you might think these are quotes describing Glenn Maxwell’s record-breaking 201* from earlier this week. But you’d be wrong.

For Maxwell’s Mumbai Mayhem was neither the most surprising, nor the most talked about innings of the week in cricket.

That belonged to the 25 made by Dean Carlin.

A number 11 in every team he’s ever played in for his entire life, the dizzying heights of a quarter-century looked so far out of reach.

But a promotion to the night watchman position gave Dean the opportunity and like a baby giraffe learning to walk for the first time, it was effective, no matter how it looked.

Dean successfully used both edges of the bat and occasionally the middle to make his highest ever seniors score.

Jude Boyle on the other hand opted to use the middle of the bat all the time. A bold strategy.

Jude batted excellently. With Campbell away, it was nice to have another weirdo who loves grinding away on a hot day.

60 from Jude, showing some an extremely strong temperament not to try and slog the loopy spinner for 6 every ball. If this is the kind of discipline required to make runs, I want no part of it.

Jude would be denied red ink, run out to lose our 10^th wicket and he’s looking tasty thanks to the red-hot, flame-grilled BBQ he was given by Sam Hando.

It’s a bye for us next, compulsory 6-hour net sessions for everyone except Dean and Jude the next two Saturdays.

B1 Grade

WPHC Blue (Todd) 8/175 defeated Vs WPHC Red (Shomik) 173

After being brutally snubbed from submitting a match report for entirely justifiable reasons last week, a derby victory for the Blues means that I have returned to report for duty once again as we successfully chased down 174 on a lightning fast Greenway outfield to hold aloft the Sheep Station’s Cup.

With a whopping seven runs on the board after last week, technique merchants Connor and I got the innings off to a strong start despite the Reds holding onto tight lines and lengths, pouncing on anything on the fuller side until their entire team was located in the region between mid off and point to prevent our luscious if rather poorly timed cover drives.

However, due to complaints from the middle order after last fortnight’s nine wicket drubbing of ARL in Thornleigh, both of us kindly edged off just as we were getting going to prevent further complaints that probably would have led to police involvement, particularly if Xander follows through with his intentions of becoming a copper sometime (secret’s out now sorry).

Unfortunately, a communication error between the outgoing openers and incoming batters, Willy and Rick, saw them consolidate after the two quick wickets and bat through both drinks and tea, albeit at a rather measly run rate due to some tight bowling from the Reds and some cool-headed defence from both. Even so, they managed to take us from a bit of trouble at 2-37 to 2-91 in the 42^nd over, before they both departed to poor shots as a result of tight bowling to leave the game right in the balance.

With eighty runs still needed for victory, this was the chance for our middle order to prove their worth after being so disgustingly garbage in previous games. However, a couple of loose shots from Bishy and Sam saw them make starts and get out – very rare for that particular duo – while Xander added Ben to his hit list once he dons the uniform after a slightly dubious stumping decision went in the way of the Reds that will see him relegated to scoring for the rest of the season. When the books are inevitably out by ten to fifteen runs at the end of each innings we play, at least we’ll know exactly who is at fault.

At 7-123, the Reds had absolutely every right to believe they were a sniff away from victory as we entered our “tail” of middle order batters in Prats, Jack and Ben “yeah I’m a number eleven” Burrows. But it was not to be as Prats joined Volc, still recovering from a groin strain after his century the other week and batted the best many of us have ever seen until he chipped one straight to cover with seven still needed, receiving the greatest applause for an innings of 20-odd that he will probably ever receive. His wicket also brought up the second five-for of the game, as Reds spinner Amit Singh got the rare chance to hold the ball aloft, eventually finishing with the superb figures of 5-45.

Prats’s dismissal brought a fresh wave of nerves to the camp situated upon the terrace at Greenway, only for Volc’s defence and Jack’s wild leaves getting the job done with two wickets to go. After his five wickets last week, it only seemed fair for Jack to hit the winning runs with a drive through the covers as we make our move up the table.

Would also like to give a reluctant shout to Jude Boyle, who most kindly popped down to tell us all about his 60 in A2s before leaving straight after, but at least we were our revenge by giving him one of our half-thawed ice creams and watching him spill the contents all over himself. Back to more important matters, it was a day of starts for the batters, with everyone but Jack and Sam reaching double figures but no one scoring more than Rick’s 31.

We hope to improve against Mount Colah next week in what shapes up to be a replay of last year’s B2 final, with hopefully the same result. In the off chance of any Colah players reading this the pitch is still the same torrid one as last year and definitely has not been re-laid with a new strip of concrete that has good length balls bouncing up at your face so make sure you get forward.

B2 Grade

WPHC (Warren) 9/270 defeated Normanhurst Warrawee 125

Loyal readers.

First and foremost my utmost apologies for my absence over the last few week. I am sure you have noticed the steep decline in quality of the match reports. Rest assured I am back and here to spill the tea. In my absence there has been a few notable events that have not been reported on so we will start this weeks March report with a quick recap of the month that has been.

Michael Gunn’s wedding:

As most of you will know by now, A grade batsmen and WPHCCCCCCCC talisman got married a few weeks back. His ‘lovely’ partner Alyssa has put her foot down early in the relationship and made it extremely clear that cricket isn’t getting in the way of their relationship by having their wedding on a Saturday, consequently decimating the Club make up for a fortnight. 50% of marriages end in divorce (source Ross Anderson) so we can only hope their marriage ends that way for what Alyssa has done to the club.

Billy Gaunt:

Resident shit bloke of the club has been up to his old tricks.

Unfortunately given the time frame we have lost count of the amount of girls he has scared off with his shit bloke aura. There have been countless instances of girls unfortunately having to have an early night/morning after spending 17 seconds on a date with him. We wish Billy the best of luck on his road to becoming a better bloke.

Aside from that he drove his mate Zach to their soccer EOS and after driving him requested $50 for fuel even though he was driving up anyways. Typical shit bloke behaviour from Bill. We’re not surprised, just disappointed.

Now to the cricket……

The day started with Matt ‘brother of Pastor Dan’ dropping 4 catches as keeper. Not to worry though, Nathaniel ‘big red (strawberry blonde)’ Chidgey managed to snag a couple early ones nonetheless. Matt then took the pads off and had a bowl, taking a good wicket early on. Paul ‘big daddy’ Vink also chipped in in the middle overs with 2 wickets. 1 being off one of the rankest balls you will ever see.

Mathew ‘Pinball Wizard/Pigby’ Digby also got a wrong un to drop bowling their number 6 middle stump. At the tea break we had them 5/65 with 280 runs on the board. They were going to batten down the hatches and try and survive a draw.

At this stage, we had dropped their number 3 roughly 7 times. Matt ‘brother of Pastor Dan’ Schwartzel, Paul ‘big daddy’ Vink, Adam ‘Donny’ Van Saarloos and Nathaniel ‘big red’ Chidgey all culprits. They looked set to see out a draw.

Enter Raymond ‘golden arm’ Khamis. Who had been begging for the ball all day. What followed can only be attributed to a miracle from god brought on from Pastor Dan Schwartzel’s prayers to Jesus Christ himself.

Ray had the ball seeming, reversing and spinning all at the same time. The batsmen were at odds with what to do. We don’t like harping on about individual performances but with the game DESTINED for a draw, big Ray’s miracle spell needs to be spoken about.

Long story short Ray finished with figures of 3/0 to steer the WPHCCCCCCC to victory in what was a vital top of the table clash. Well done boys and more importantly well done Ray for saving the day.

Other news:

• Kick on at the Digby House tonight
• Big Stuart Fiedler has a license to cut loose this weekend (watch out ladies)

C1 Grade

WPHC (Indranil) 179 lost to Sydney Lions 7/180

After a poor first week, our West Penno team was looking to turn things around with the ball.

We started off with Ben Waldron and Vishnu Raman bowling absolute heat. Both of them bowling two maidens. Both of them were bowling very well, but our team needed to practice some catching, as our team dropped their opening batsman around 5 times. After many questionable decisions and arguments with the umpire, the first opening batsman, finally fell to opening bowler Vishnu Raman, caught by Cameron Bliss. Before that, he middled a hook shot off Ben Waldron that was sent out of the ground. He must have thought good batsman go twice.

Their number 3 batsman started off well with a good partnership with the other opening batsman. We couldn’t do much against these two, so we brought on the next few bowlers, being Ayush Kumar, Prashanth Kumar, and Arjonil Mukherjee.

During this time, the number 3 batsman got frustrated and fell to our classy leg spinner Ajonil Mukherjee. Getting clean bowled with the middle peg slanted, trying to send one into the car park. In the end, he smashed 39 off 43 with five 4s and one 6. With the 2^nd wicket being taken, West Pennant Hills took drinks, with the score at around 2/79. Needing 1 hundred runs with 8 wickets and 52 overs remaining.

Next in was Nakulan Ramamurthi, who also had a solid partnership with the still-standing opening batsman.

During this partnership, their first opener passed 50 runs, even after having been dropped numerous times, he still fought on. During this partnership, we tried many different types of bowlers, consisting of Yasith Polwaththe, Ansh Pratheesh, and even going back to our previous bowlers.

Unfortunately to us, their opening batsman was caught out but off a no ball, which angered our players even more. However, the rising partnership was broken by our opening bowler, Ben Waldron, as their number 4 spooned it straight to our cover, Cameron Bliss.

After we claimed our third, there was a slow partnership between the opener and number 5, until Prashanth Kumar was brought back on, and claimed their opening batsman, caught by Arjonil Mukherjee on the boundary.

In the end, his nine lives were over after he made a well fought 71 off 76 with nine 4s and one 6. One over after this, Ben Waldron claimed another after their number 6 batsman nicked off and was caught by the captain Indranil Mukherjee. Both the 4^th and 5^th wickets were a big confidence boost for our captain and our team, as we quickly realised we were back in the game.

After the fifth wicket, we took tea, with the opposing team needing 27 runs but with only 5 wickets remaining. After tea, our leg spinner Arjonil Mukherjee claimed his second, as their number 7 fell when he was caught on the boundary by Ayush Kumar.

However, it was too late, as Arjonil was sent back to back sixes by their number 7 before getting out. Only needing 15 to get, our team panicked as we switched bowlers. Unfortunately, we were not able to get any more wickets before they passed our total, securing their victory.

However, during the last over before the match was called finished, the opposing Captain fell to Cameron Bliss as he middled one to the bowlers hand. In the end, the match was called completed right after Cameron Bliss took a screamer. Making the opposing teams a total 7-181, claiming the victory as we are behind by 2 runs.

In the end, it was a hard fought battle by each and every player in the west pennant hills team. However, the score we put up was not enough, as we were unable to stop the opposing team from getting 180 runs. Even though we lost this game, we should still take the positives for a come back next round.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue (Rob) Vs Bye

No game this week.

WPHC Red (Arun) 289 drew with and Hornsby 8/154

The second day of the thrilling encounter between WPHCC and Hornsby commenced with an air of anticipation after a scintillating Day 1 display by WPHCC’s batsmen, especially highlighted by Hari’s splendid century. Spirits were high as the players took to the field, eager to build on the momentum gained from the previous day.

Skipper Arun had a strategic plan to put Hornsby on the back foot early in their innings, and his bowlers executed it to perfection. The opening spells from Amitava and Vikas were nothing short of exceptional, setting the tone for the day. Happy and Kurian continued the onslaught, delivering remarkable spells that kept Hornsby on the defensive.

The breakthrough came in the 8th over, courtesy of a disciplined bowling performance. Rishab’s leg spin added a new dimension to the attack, claiming crucial wickets and tightening the screws on Hornsby. The collective efforts of Koleth, Kurian, Happy, Aniket, Amitava, and Vinod ensured that Hornsby struggled to build partnerships. From the 8th to the 35th over, Hornsby lost 6 wickets, a testament to WPHCC’s formidable bowling attack.

As the realisation of an impending defeat sunk in for Hornsby, they adopted a defensive strategy, blocking deliveries with minimal intent to score runs. WPHCC’s bowlers, led by Rishab, continued to apply pressure, restricting the scoring opportunities for the opposition.

However, the turning point came when West Penno dropped a few crucial catches, including that of skipper Arun. This lapse in fielding allowed Hornsby’s batsmen to regroup and gain a foothold in the match, albeit in a defensive manner.

In the end, West Penno managed to take two more wickets, but the stubborn resistance of Hornsby’s lower order ensured they played out a lifeless innings. With the match hanging in the balance and the last wicket standing, the inevitable conclusion arrived – a rare tie in cricket. Hornsby finished their innings at 154, losing a total of 8 wickets.

Highlights of the Day

1. Rishab’s incredible leg spin.
2. West Peno dropped at least six to eight catches.
3. Hornsby demonstrated how to show very bad umpiring when they did not give out on a straightforward catch.

C3 Grade

WPHC Red (Fieds) 8/225 defeated Castle Hill 221

A bit of a day for the purists this one.

Resuming at 1/8 chasing 221, the pre-game chat was about the need to build partnerships & have 1 or 2 players go on to make a big score. We haven’t had anyone score a 50+ score yet, so figured today would have to be the day. Little did we know only the opposition seemed to be listening, as they coughed up 57 runs in extras – the highest score of the day.

But let’s go back to the start…

Steve resumed with Louis aiming to see off the new pill, but the early loss of Louis brought the in-form Cam to the crease. They added 66 together, to get us to a healthy 2/81 before Steve departed for a well-made 48. Maybe we were over-confident, maybe we just let the sun get to us, or maybe we are just genuine C-grade park cricketers but from such a strong position, we found ourselves at 7/137 just before tea and potentially throwing this one away.

Soon to be sexaganarians & old shaggers Eric & Fieds came together (not for the first time), and set about grinding the opposition into the Caddies Creek dust.

It wasn’t pretty, but they hung around to see off the 2^nd new ball and get us to within 7 runs from the win before Eric departed for 46. Fieds (28*) & Shakeel (4*) took us over the finish line.

We no doubt made it tougher on ourselves than we had to, but we needed the 6 points to keep us in the hunt for the finals.

WPHC Blue (Mat) 3/305 drew with Sydney Lions 5/179

Good evening viewers, another glorious day of cricket at Dooral Park.

We opened the bowling with Fin and Rob who bowled great line and length all day and were very unlucky with a couple of LBW’s. But surprisingly we had to check the pulse on the umpire, Not Out.

With not much excitement from the opposition and the guys holding the bat and not able to use it we had the old veteran thrown the ball. During the second over we had their opener (actually I think they reversed their batting order) shoulder arms and got wrapped in front of the stumps. To our surprise the umpire said not out, checked the pulse all good. Next ball caught behind.

1 wicket 9 to get. We decided to throw the goat the ball, he had been sunning himself at fine leg who managed to pick up the other opener with a great catch from Matt that spent 15 seconds in the air (probably 3) The goat then continued with his Harris Farm specials and picked up the next scalp caught by Rob with the 2^nd best catch of the season. This catch will end up in the Sid chrome classic catches of the summer.

At 3 for 80 off 40 overs the Sydney Lioness’s had one intention today draw.

Straight after lunch the other Matt (The Male Model) from Mudgee, picked up the next wicket with a lovely catch to Marty at 1^st slip.

We continued to entertain ourselves whilst the opposition continued to leave balls that your grandmother could hit for 6, the boys broke out the cards and were playing poker when Rob came back on for his 2^nd spell. Against the wind, up hill Rob trapped old mate in front, to our disbelief the umpire gave it out! Miracles do happen people…

The running between wickets from the opposition was electric today with the local turtle over taking the No 3 (28 off 244 balls) several times.

We were fortunate today that everyone managed to bowl except Brent.

Terrific spell of bowling from Marty, who hasn’t bowled since 1993.

Some tight bowling from Riz, Sohan, Bronson, Fin, Goat, James, Male Model and great to see Big Bird get a crack at some pace bowling later in the game. Although his run back to mark was quicker than his run in?

Rob was great at the back end of the game with 1/8 off 8 with 6 maidens.

Thanks to William for sub fielding and sliding around a bit.

C4 Grade

WPHC Blue (Hiresh) 8/197 defeated Kissing Point 194

1-33. That’s what we were at after day 1, chasing 194, clear sunny hot conditions and the scene was set.

The boys arrived at Mimosa oval ready for a showdown and secure the first win of the season. To Sachman’s disappointment we weren’t served with a complimentary mimosa on arrival. The hot temperature made us all thank the lord for not having to field. Captain unlucky was trying his hardest to convince everyone that this was all part of his plan to lose yet another toss last week, don’t worry mate none of us have any hope for winning a toss for the foreseeable future.

Sparsh and Muks walked on the pitch with great intent looking to win this game.

Sparsh had already been practicing his celebration for both his 50 and 100. Kissing Point were well and truly their dickish selfs this week as well at the start of the game. Chirping and trying to get in the head of our batsmen but unfortunately for them we had our very own Virat Kholi in the form of Sparsh (yes he named himself that) and Dravid in the form of Muks.

From the very first over the both of them looked to score runs, after a few dots Muks played a perfect cover drive for 4 which set the tone for their innings. From here it was just patience and aggression from the pair of them, Sparsh raced to his 50 as he finally got to use his celebration that he had been practicing in his bedroom for the last week. The chat for last week and earlier in the day had completely disappeared and we enjoyed the beautiful sound of leather getting battered around.

Lots more 4s after we finally got to see C4’s and Sparsh’s first ton.

As you can imagine the cheer from the stands was loud to say the least. And not too long after welcomed Mukunds first 50 after a brilliant innings in which he held his ground and just batted like his usual self. A couple over after we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Sparsh after he was caught but an incredible premeditated 105 from the lad!!!

In comes Eamon who well had to sit on his chair for most of the day and now had to go in to score the last 15 for the win but all he really wanted to do is slog and head off to schoolies where he plans on passing out drunk in the streets of Gold Coast, you just have to respect it.

The very first ball he faced he slashed away for 4 all of us thought let’s start packing as this is gonna be over by the end of this over. But two balls later Eamon found himself swinging for the fences, unfortunately for him the ball and bat were in 2 different postcodes and he got bowled.

Now I’d like to ask everyone to pray for Eamon’s liver for the week he’s about to have. In comes Meet who hit a couple of solid runs but was later dismissed for 5 with only 4 runs needed for us to get the win. Now in comes Ratul who in my honest opinion had the most instrumental innings in our team with an amazing 0*with no balls faced as Muks hit a beautiful 4 to secure us the win!!

The best way to summarize today will be with this beautiful phrase by Sparsh “Chat shit get hit”

C4 Red (Ross S) 2/171 drew with Beecroft White 9/350 dec

A hot day as we arrived at Northholm Grammar. Even though we were chasing 350, and facing the competition leaders the lads were so glad we were not fielding today.

With a strong opening bowling attack, we just wanted to survive the onslaught, then see how the afternoon would progress. Talk was about patience and taking runs where we can….and try bat out the day…

After facing 7 hostile overs week 1, Mridal and Raynaldo were intent on survival week 2. Unfortunately Raynaldo missed a full pitched one in the third over 1-11 off 10.

Mridal and Suf then played the next 17 overs to drinks in stoic fashion. Scoring was really difficult with really tight bowling and exceptional fielding by a bunch of 17-21 year olds….no chances given by Mridal and Sufyan though.

At the first drinks break 1/30 off 27 overs and looking strong.After the break another tight 4 overs by the Beecroft paceman. First chance went down when the keeper celebrating too quickly to an edge from Suf and made a meal of the catch. At that stage Suf was on about 16….and he would make them pay.

With the lads batting so solidly, Beecroft mixed around their bowling. Mridal continued to be the glue and rotated the strike, whilst Sufs controlled aggression pushed along the score. Suf reached his 50 at the 40 over mark and was finally dismissed by a ball that kept really low, for a well made 60 (9*4 + 2*6) in the over before the tea break.

At tea things we were looking good 2/102 (45 overs) with Mridal still at the crease and Mohan to join. The Beecroft lads looking very tired.

After the tea break the opposition threw everything they had at Mridal and Mohan over the next 30 mins …11 overs for only 9 runs….their accurate and quick opening bowler 22 overs with 12 maidens.but more importantly wicketless.

Change of bowler and everything changed….an over of 15 then 13…23 of these to Mohan and the Beecroft team were done….again with Mridal playing the anchor and Mohan’s controlled aggression we progressed our score to 2/171…..

With 20 min to 5pm mark, the Beecroft lads were spent, 2 of their players off the field.

Having bowled 20 overs since tea they wanted a drinks break…..no problem for us as they were well ahead of their over rate and we were happy to go to 5pm with 18 overs to play.

At this point things got a little strange…..a couple of the Beecroft guys asked Ross if we could stop and share the points. WPH still needing 180 off 18 overs. After a quick POWWOW with our team , our guys had no issue.  Whilst Ross was having a chat with the Beecroft skipper on the sideline (message Ross had no issue Beecrofts call), his guys had already pulled stumps…..response from the skipper that’s your answer……A bunch of young guys were spent…and happy to congratulate us on a hard fought game.

Kudos to Mridal who carried his bat for 64 overs for a patient and chanceless innings of 32 no. Mohan was not out 42…..his third score in the 40’2 this season after being out on 49 twice….This was so pleasing as the Beecroft white team have a really good Bowling attack….our guys were just so patient. Well done guys.

With such a tight ladder and a bye next round 3 points should keep us in the top 4 for the next few weeks.

 D1 Grade

WPHC Blue (Agniva) 220 defeated Vs Kissing Point 156

The loss against Thornleigh was a tough pill to swallow for the Blues and we were determined to turn things around in Round 5.

After scoring 156 on day 1, the aim was simple, score another 100 odd runs and then try and bowl Kissing Point out. However, the days leading up to day 2 saw our team keeper Sahil pick up an injury and had to sit out which meant the team was left without a specialist keeper (more on this in a bit).

We arrived at a lighting quick Campbell park and a cricket ball which seemed to be doing something off the seam. Agni fell to a blinder on the third over of the day but Lakshya and Pritam then carried the burden on their shoulders and built a partnership which was extremely critical to get us past that 200 score.

While Pritam belted the bowlers all around the park for his 29 with his David Warner Kaboom replica, the KP team seemed more interested on the blade of the bat than actually trying to stop him but they somehow did. Lakshya on the other hand played a class inning of 43 with some brilliant knocks all around and able support from Siby at number 11.

With about 50 overs to bowl to try and wrap KP out, we knew we had a solid chance if we kept things tight.

Pritam was given the gloves in absence of Sahil, a move which proved extremely fruitful at the end. Ravi and Rohan started off the proceeding with brilliant bowling from both ends which made KP clueless about how to approach this run chase. While Rohan got a bit unlucky, The Cheetah in Ravi Gunna came alive and how. 3 quick wickets including once impeccable stumping from Pritam saw the opposition reeling at 3-31 at tea. With a real sniff on the win, we went in after tea with a clear plan, try and wrap them up!

What eventuated was a performance from the entire team in that heat to fight it out. Praneel and Lakshya bowled superbly and the after picked up another 3 wickets (they surely weren’t expecting that

pace from both of these bowlers in that heat).

It was then up to the spinners and the medium fast bowlers to try and wrap things up.

At the last drinks break of the day, Amith Ninan decided to help us out with the gloves and this is what makes things special – players rising up to the occasion and giving it their all. Chintan, Agni & Pritam kept things tight and ended up with 2 & a wicket each respectively and we managed to wrap KP up for 156 with about 5 overs to spare.

Happy Diwali 🪔 everyone! What a win and a moment to be on top of the ladder on the eve of Diwali. This had to be the best performance from the team this season – everyone stepping up and contributing to fight it out.

Here’s hoping to carry this momentum on to the next round clash vs Beecroft.

WPHC Red (Diggers) 5/130 drew with Hornsby 301

After a long wet day in the field last week, which saw Hornsby score 301, we knew Day 2 would be a challenge against this strong Hornsby team.

When we arrived at Arcadia the grass in the outfield seemed to have grown a couple of inches from all the rain and hot weather during the week which was going to add to the challenge of chasing down the total.

Cliff and Ross opened for us and runs were hard to come by.

After Cliff got out early, we decided to change tact and protect our wicket and at drinks we were 1/16 off 20 overs with Ross and Tim doing a great job.

Shortly after drinks Ross fell victim and we were 2/17 after 24. This brought Harry to the crease to partner Tim.

Harry came out with a positive mindset and played his natural game.

When Tim fell at 3/34 after 37 overs, Harry was joined by Gus and together they put on a great partnership of 43 runs into the 52^nd over.

Grant joined Harry who was starting to play his shots and kept the score ticking over. Harry continued to frustrate the Hornsby bowlers and brought up his first (of many I expect) Senior’s 50. At this stage Hornsby were starting to panic as the overs had ticked over to 59 and they brought back their main strike bowler to get a break through. This paid dividend with Harry getting caught out shortly after his 50 and we were 5/91 in the 59^th over.

Grant was joined by Surendra and together they batted superbly for the rest of the innings, showing great defensive technique and patience.

Grant and Surendra batted for the remaining 23 overs and we finished the day at 5/130 with the game drawn which is a great result against a team coming second on the ladder.

D2 Grade

WPHC (Roger) 175 Vs Castle Hill

Scores and Match Report not available.