Match Reports

Competition – Round 11 (1-Dayer)

(Saturday 20^th January 2024)

A1 Grade

WPHC (Cameron) 129 lost to Berowra Maroon 6/133

Match Report not yet to hand.

A2 Grade

WPHC (Campbell) Vs Bye

B1 Grade

WPHC Blue (Todd) 4/174 defeated Kissing Point 81

We walked out onto a lush Thornleigh oval, with the batsman frustrated for the third week in a row. However this did not discourage them as we were sent out to bat by Kissing Point.

Openers Connor and Sam walked out to face the music, as the Kissing Point opener sent down the definition of a warm up ball, a slow loopy full toss at Connors hip. Connor coaches the juniors of the Club to punish the bad ball, but forgot to follow his own teachings as he pulled straight to the fielder at mid-wicket. The European curse continued though as he fell for 1 at the start of the second over.

The Volcano and Sam decided to partner up to take on the Kissing Point bowlers playing expansive shots over the infield and running aggressively between the wickets. While this occurred Xander decided to distract the scorers with an “educational video” on how to trim the hairs where the sun don’t shine in preparation for Jude’s big night out.

After drinks Volk fell for a solid 40 and the bromance of Bish and Jude was separated as Jude was required at the centre of the wicket. After taking the loopy leg spinner for 19 of an over, Sam’s body ran out of steam much before his talent and he fell for 60. But then the tension in the field rose as the bromance was reunited, with Bish slightly outscoring Jude. BDR had a strong finish as he held the run rate up taking on the arms of the Kissing Point fielders with many quick singles, surprising the team who previously thought him incapable of running.

Our openers Hutcho hutcho man and Ben Burrows opened up with a good spell with Ben blasting the front pad off the Kissing Point captain. Then Hutcho Hutcho boy came into the attack opting to bowl a non-traditional leg stump line, in doing so managing to pick up two wickets thanks to some classic catches from Connor and Ben

Our very own A grade keeper Dylan Bish and worlds fakest Scotsman; Willy partnered up to finish of the Kissing Point innings. Willy picked up 4 pushing ahead in the wickets race, as he turned the ball through the kissing point batsman. Bish got an lbw which he later told the umpire was going down leg.

Hopefully in future he learns to keep his mouth shut and just be happy when he sees the finger go up. Hutcho junior also picked up a runout, in what can only be described as an attempt on Willy’s life he pegged the ball at the stumps from 3 metres out fortunately hitting the stumps and not Willy’s leg (which would have likely crippled him for life).

The only thing really tarnishing a great day for B1s cricket was escaped giraffe Lachlan Edwards (possibly a distant cousin to Jack Edwards (sadly the cricketing talent didn’t get shared around the gene pool).

Lachy showed up after second innings drinks bragging that he had top scored in his C1s match.

However when a team gets bowled out for 38 that’s not much to brag about. Clearly in a sour mood he attempted to sabotage the team, making a meal of an absolute sitter (he had to dive two meters to his left (none of us would have gotten near it)). Worst still back at the club as he made a case to rename the expression ‘butter fingers’ to ‘butter chicken fingers’ as he dropped his phone in his $30 club curry. Finishing the day with 10 (41) and 2 costly drops, we expect better from him next week.

If we can keep this form for the rest of the season we can hopefully scrape into the finals

WPHC Red (Shomik) 139 defeated Mt Colah 126

In probably one of the most spectacular collapses in all of the Association this year, the Reds managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. In what would can only be described as a bloody miracle.

Now, coming into the third game of the season at Mt. Ku-ring-gai, i was keen to label this ground a furnace, to which no team could defeat us. Armed with the same tried and true strategy of, bat first, run a shit load of runs and expect no boundaries.

Welcoming Cam Bliss back into his favourite team, all the boys were keen to have an opener to replace Alex Turner.

It was the running between the wickets that set the tone for the innings, everyone getting starts but no one able to crack 25ish. The top 8 all made double digits, creating a defendable target of 139.

Shomik was insistent of a score in the vicinity of like 150-160, but in all fairness, putting up this score gave some much needed confidence to the top order and the batting in general. The best highlight was Sagnik hitting a massive bomb of a six and losing the ball and Oscar top scoring with 23. Reflecting on the innings, it was how each team member made sure to contribute positively whilst batting with intelligence and cricket smarts.

But now the fun begins, the batting innings description was more of a pleasantry, the bowling innings was full of twists and turns.

Mohsin just cannot catch a bloody break, as Harsh “Butter for fingers” dropped a catch at backward square to start the game. Neil is getting better and better by the week, sending the stumps into different states. Alec also joined in the fun, sending the same set of stumps the same way. 2-32.

The number three and number four for Mt Colah set a lofty expectation prior to their innings, having scored the most runs in the association this season. These were the prized wickets of the game. Their good quality batting and running between the wickets, combined with catches that always seemed just out of reach, frustrated the bowlers, having Shomik scratching his head as to the best way to extract a breakthrough.

Now, at 2-100, 9 overs remaining, 39 runs, two established batsman on 40 and 30, no player from the Reds could ever imagine what was to transpire next.

Shomik, in his ever expanding mind, thought, hey, one last crack, one of these guys can’t play short balls too well, let’s just bowl short.

This isn’t your everyday bowl a bouncer as a change-up, it was, EVERY BALL. I didn’t believe it would work but bloody hell, it triggered a collapse of 8-28. Both Shomik and I channelled our inner Neil Wagner and off we went.

• 3-100: Caught at Square Leg off a Shomik short ball
• 4-100: Caught at Square Leg off an Alec short ball by Harsh “Buckets for hands”
• 5-111: Run out off a Shomik short ball
• 6-111: Caught and Bowled off a Shomik short ball
• 7-112: Caught Behind off an Alec short ball
• 8-117: Bowled by Shomik
• 9-122: Bowled by Shomik
• 10-126: Run out off Mohsin

Absolutely cannot underestimate the work of Sagnik today, he was throwing himself around and the number of byes he saved meant that we stayed in the game. An unsung hero as you will. Every player contributed so much. Amit and Kapil during the middle overs, although they took no wickets, stole overs from them, building pressure when we really needed it.

I would talk ad nauseam about each player,

Oscar and Cam’s batting, Shomik’s captaincy and bowling, Alec’s, Amit’s and Kapil’s bowling, Dinesh, Harsh and Inzy’s fielding, and Mohsin’s final over.

Awesome win boys, well deserved victory.

B2 Grade

WPHC (Warren) 124 defeated Hornsby 121

As outright table leaders we arrived to the home of B2’s cricket Dural Paddock with a fire in our bellies.

Although we are table leaders our one and only slip up was against the Hornsby Hornets and today we would have a chance for revenge at our fortress. In football they ask if they can do it on a rainy night in stoke. Amongst B2s they ask if they can get it done on a steamy Saturday at Dural Paddock. This place is our caldron. Teams fear coming here and rightfully so – they are met with hostility. We are by no means good hosts.

Warren ‘the diplomat’ Schwartzel got us off to a fantastic start by losing his 19161817^th toss of the season. An Association record (Source Ross Anderson). As a team we have decided that Waz doesn’t lose tosses, he simply lets the opposition decision whether they’d like to lose batting our fielding first being the true gentlemen he is. Nonetheless such is the quality of the squad he has built that we turn every toss into a good toss to lose more often than not. Today would be no different.

Zac ‘the feisty ranga’ Turner (41) and Ray ‘how many god damned Rocky III training montages do I have to watch to convert a 30 odd to a 50’ (you guessed it 30 odd) got WPHCCCCC off to a relative flier given the outfield had the same viscosity as Ray’s chest hair. Their 50 run partnership combined sneaky singles, converting 1s into 2s and a little bit of power hitting to really set the boys up for a big score on a tough tough scoring ground.

Unfortunately for the hard workers their middle order they decided to be completely useless instead.

We lost wickets in clumps throughout the middle over which meant the promise of an above par score quickly dissipated and we scrambled towards a score of 124 runs. This was not a bad score but we would have to bowl extremely well to defend a relatively low total for a second week in a row.

Highlights of the innings included Ray being hated by the entire Hornsby team within 3 overs for pointing out some blatant hypocrisy (we are team anti hypocrisy over her at B2s) only to turn the charm on and be best mates with all of them about 3 overs later. CEO of good vibes only ltd Adams dad Kris came and said hello. What a nice guy! And Nick Duck said something really funny.

Anyways back onto the cricket.

Alex ‘tits on a bull’ got proceedings going with the ball by bowling a truly truly awful spell. Tits on a bull could not get his radar going and sprayed the ball all over the place forcing the diplomat to put his son Dan, or Matt on. After this long in the season I still cannot tell the twins apart so for a an absolute first in the WPHCCCCC B2s match report the following account may not be 100% factual.

Dan’s first over produced a wicket leaving them basically 1/0. Dan had the ball on an absolute string and was bowling with such heat and aggression, getting every single bit out of a deteriorating Day 5 Dural Paddock pitch. He proved too good and too quick for their first two batsmen and got us off to the best start possible. Matt joined the party with a couple for himself to have Hornsby scrambling at 4/not many.

In amongst all this Ray took an absolute screamer at slip and decided the appropriate celebration was to throw the ball at the batsmen as hard as he could. Probably not super smart but the big guy gets carried away sometimes.

Nick ‘they don’t call me buckets for nothing’ took an absolute screamer at mid on – one of the biggest comeback stories you will see in sport. The bloke couldn’t catch COVID eating bat testicles in Wuhan China no less than a fortnight ago and today, his catches won us a game of cricket. Never give up kids. And Adam ‘private Pyle’ Van Saarloos dived like a bloody pelican to take a regulation catch at mid wicket. Adam thought we were impressed by the fake dive but that led to a big fine. Sorry Adam.

Knaps ‘no one has taken more wickets in the time Rob has been playing than Rob’ Knapman and Matthew ‘pinball wizard’ digby chipped in with some middle over wickets too.

We had Hornsby 6/65 with 11 overs to play.

Enter Ray Khamis who got his man with a mastermind piece of cricket which would have had Shane Warne smiling in his grave. Zac ‘sticky fingers’ Turner had to take one of the best catches you will see to produce this one though. Shout out Zac, hope the hematoma on your hand gets better soon!

We needed 3 wickets to win, they needed 60 odd runs.

How could we ever be in a position to lose from here? The boys were already mentally drinking $5 schooners at the Sporto because they’ve gotten to the sporto before happy hour. This was not to be. The CEOS of letting up had other plans. Now we aren’t calling the other team cheats, that would be rude but we’re 99% sure they cooked the books. All of a sudden they hit like 3 singles and needed 20 odd to win off 4 overs.

We had them 9 down though. Zac dropped the number 11 because why not make a game of this aye? They needed 13 off the last two overs. Rob ‘feisty bald short f**cker* then bowled two doosras which spun from middle stump to outside of the pitch outside off. Rob has never spun a ball off spin which is what he tries to bowl and all of a sudden he’s got the leggy ripping and a turnin!!! What a man!!!

No just kidding their umpire had no idea where he was and boy did Rob let him know about it. After a good old fashion swearing match the diplomat Waz had to step in and calm things down. All was sorted and we got onto it. Anyways they need 4 to win off the last over, how have we let it come to this? Not to worry though folks. Warren ‘leave this to me’ Schwartzel dismissed their number 11 with 3 balls to spare , with Nick Duck taking his second screamer of the day. We got it done. Dural paddock remains our fortress – her cherry was not popped today ladies and gentlemen.

We solidify our spot at the and do it in style. The enthusiasm amongst the group is growing and we look forward to rippin and a turnin into finals!

Other news:

• Tonight we celebrated the engagement of Brent and Samantha . A beautiful night and we’re so happy for the two angels
• Ray became an uncle/godfather
• Ryan Gunn’s proposed comeback has developed from likely to more than likely – stay tuned for his return in D grade next season
• West Indies are a great cricketing nation and were so glad they’ve been given to opportunity to tour Aus so we can watch 5 days of good test match cricket this week!

C1 Grade

WPHC (Indranil) 38 lost to Sydney Lions 1/40

It’s not very often in cricket that you are generously provided with the chance to do something crazy. It’s even less often that you take that chance with both hands and actually pull it off.

Today, the WPHCCC C1 team had the opportunity to do just that.

Unfortunately, though, we could not tap into that extra reservation and pull off what may have been something for the record books (ask Ross Anderson).

After either winning the toss and choosing to bat or losing the toss and being sent in, Vedant and Lachie, promoted from B1s after his incredible form over the past few weeks set about building a target reminiscent of the 230 chased down earlier in the season at this exact same ground.

Unfortunately, Vedant chucked a little spanner in the works by getting out first ball, but that’s okay.

What wasn’t okay was the fact that we continuously lost wickets, first struggling to get through their very accurate opening bowlers and then losing wickets in rapid succession chasing desperately needed runs. In the end we finished with a fair few less than the 230 we were after but in cricket, any total is chaseable.

Highlights included Lachie’s double figure total of ten – top scoring for the team in his C1 debut, an exceptional feat for the ring-in – but the hero of the hour was Vishnu, who defied all precedent by actually hitting a boundary on the spongy Northholm Grammar outfield. Unfortunately, in form bats Akith and Oliver were unable to shine, but we’re sure they’ll go above and beyond to make up for it next week.

Even so, 38 is still defendable.

Last I checked, you needed to score more runs than the opposition to win a game of cricket. While 38 might not seem like much, Sydney Lions had scored zero, meaning they were still 38 runs behind even tying, let alone the 39^th run they needed for the victory. So as far as we were concerned, we were heavy favourites.

Still behind in the game, the Lions openers struggled against the superior pace of Ben and Vishnu, the latter continuing his brilliant game with a wicket to really put us on top of the game. Replacing Ben, Ayush didn’t let anything away with some incredibly tight left-arm swing bowling, moving the ball around walls but still somehow not picking up any poles.

Even so, the Lions, against all odds, kept on creeping closer and closer to our target – to the point that Captain Indranil decided he wanted to go home early and throw the ball to Lachie, who duly took his orders and conceded fourteen runs of five balls (yes, it was FIVE, and PlayCricket is, as always, wrong), losing by nine wickets but really keeping them under the pump, for they only had 139 of their 210 balls remaining when they scored the winning runs.

Plenty of positives to take away, but ultimately the batting department does need a bit of work.

While we can’t expect to score 230 every week, we should be scoring a few more than 38. Onto next week where we hopefully don’t have to rely on unreliable ring-ins again.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue (Mat) 8/123 lost to St Ives-Wahroonga 211

Confidence was soaring high after last week’s victory against top-of-the-ladder Castle Hill, but today, we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle.

Maybe our cricket mojo took a coffee break or decided to explore new career options. So, winning the toss, St Ives decided to bat first and had dreams of setting a record-breaking score at the historic Campbell Park. The boundaries were so close, you’d think they were using a ruler instead of a tape measure – 40 meters, more like 40 centimetres! The batters were practically salivating at the thought of hitting sixes without even breaking a sweat.

Off to a good start, we took early wickets with Matthew Marsden with a regular day in the office with 2/32 as well as John who according to the wicketkeeper Rizul was swinging 2 metres—well bowled with 1/23 off his 7.

But alas, it seemed like the cricket gods were in a particularly mischievous mood, and the opposing team’s batters were smashing us around the park as if they had mistaken the cricket ground for a pinata at a birthday party. We then after the break put on Rizul and Jimmy to bowl with Rizul getting 3 quick wickets and Jimmy getting unlucky but very economical.

After that batters on the other team were wielding their bats like Thor with his mighty hammer, and the ball was flying off them with a determination to explore every nook and cranny of the boundary. Our fielders were left chasing after it like confused cats trying to catch a laser pointer, but the ball had mastered the art of dodging.

Then Gazza came back from the Adelaide test due to the early finish. Then took a quick wicket to restrict St Ives to a total of 221. Thanks, Gary

The runs were piled up faster than excuses on a Monday morning, we couldn’t help but feel like we were participants in a twisted game of hide and seek – only, the boundaries were the ones doing the hiding. Those 40-meter boundaries suddenly felt like they had transformed into a cricketing Bermuda Triangle, where our hopes of stopping the onslaught mysteriously disappeared.

Off to open, Rizul and Brent were on a mission to turn the cricket ground into their comedy club, hoping to leave everyone in stitches. But the dream was cut short with Rizul departing the third ball of the innings.

The stage was then taken by the one and only Matt “Marsden the Magician.” He wasn’t pulling rabbits out of hats; instead, he was conjuring elegant drives that left the opposition fielders looking more confused than a cat watching a magic trick. However, his offside fishing expedition ended up being more of a fishing fail, and he got caught hook, line, and stinker. Brent partnering with him with a solid good looking 25.

As wickets fell faster than a clumsy magician dropping cards, we found ourselves in a spot of bother. The 9^th wicket partnership of 50 gave us something to go with. Bronson Marsden with a fighting knock of 21 caressing the field and Muhood one of the fill-ins with 25.

In the end, the duo left the field for a standing ovation (from the imaginary audience in our heads). Well batted, indeed – the crowd (of our vivid imagination) was in splits!

Credit: The 3 fill-ins for fielding today in the heat. Thank You!

 WPHC Red (Arun) 98 lost to Mt Colah 2/102

The WPHCC Reds encountered a formidable challenge as they grappled with the absence of key players during their clash with Mt. Colah in 2024. Despite losing the toss and being sent in to bat, the team displayed resilience in the face of adversity.

Vinod, playing his first game of the year, took charge in the second over, scoring an impactful 11 runs. Saurabh provided crucial support, but an unfortunate dismissal of Saurabh halted the momentum.

As Rishab took the crease, West Penno was on course for a steady innings.

Vinod’s partnership with Saurabh flourished, but his departure after scoring 29 runs left a void. Aniket stepped in, contributing to a promising partnership with Rishab. However, the tables turned when Rishab fell victim to an impressive delivery, triggering a sudden collapse. From 51/2, the team slumped to 58/6. Chetan’s resilient performance salvaged the situation, guiding the team to a modest total of 98.

Despite the low score, the Reds remained optimistic, relying on their strong bowling attack.

Captain Arun instilled faith in the team as Vikas and Vinod showcased skilful movements and swings. The early dismissal of Mt. Colah’s opening batter fuelled hopes, but dropped catches proved costly. Mt. Colah’s captain, resilient in his position, orchestrated a controlled innings, steering his team to victory. The task became insurmountable when their captain departed, and the opposition’s best batter sealed the win.

While WPHCC Reds faced a challenging day, acknowledging recent struggles in the last two matches, the focus is on resilience and improvement.

Every team undergoes tough phases, and with the competition still ongoing, there’s a determination to regroup, address weaknesses, and stage a strong comeback in the subsequent matches.

It’s a time for the Reds to gather themselves, learn from the setbacks, and strive to dominate in the matches ahead.

C3 Grade

WPHC Blue (Rob) 7/134 defeated WPHC Red (Fieds) 6/132

Here comes Greenway Park, the home of West Penno cricket.

Today it produced one of the most bizarre yet thrilling games of cricket you’ll ever see. Primed for the occasion, both the blues skippered by Rob Hanich and the Reds led by Andrew Fiedler were ready to give it all on the dusty deck.

Fieds won the toss and Reds went into bat, with Steve Williams and Cam Croucher opening. Tight bowling from Malinda and Rehan saw the batsmen struggle to score before Malinda took Cam’s wicket. Forcing a flick to Maher at mid-wicket.

Reds 1-19 after 6.

Peter Lees and Steve would trudge on seeing off the bowling of Mudi and Maher until Buzz came on.

W…W. S.Burrows 2-0  Both Peter and Lachie Woolnough had both gone off the bowling of Buzz.

Reds 3-45.

Dinesh would partner Steve till drinks before he too fell at the hands of a leg side catch by keeper Aden off Mudi’s bowling.

Then came the power hitting Steve and Jack Marsden sending the ball to all parts of Greenway before Rehan had Steve bowled for 47 and a partnership of 42. Rehan then grabbed a second a couple overs later as Jack skied a ball to Will at Square Leg.

Reds 6-106

Skipper Fieds and Nathan Fathers would steer the Redside of West Penno to 132 off their 35 overs.

For the Blues Aden and Kamran would go to bat with Kamran falling early, a great catch by Shaq at square leg in front of the balcony.

Out went Maher, and he survived a nasty run out opportunity as bowler Jack and Steve collided, ending their afternoons with a trip to the medical centre.

Aden and Maher batted nicely crafting a 45 run partnership before Louis Wang took Aden’s wicket, while Will ran himself out two balls later.

Maher soon brought up his 50 just after drinks, steering the score to 3-89 off 25.

Maher soon fell as did no.6 Jacques while Mudi turned up the run rate scoring with McLennan Senior, Andrew. Both striking balls across the ground as the Blues rose through the early 100s.

Blues 6-112 off 31

Blues 6-118 off 32

Blues 6-127 off 33

Blues 7-129 off 34

Rehans quick cameo of 12 following Mudi would deal further damage to the reds defence. Pat Watkins, Shaq Mistry and Dinesh all bowling well to try and deny the blues the win.

Yet, Hiren and Andrew had different plans. 4 needed with Dinesh bowling the last over, anything could happen.

1, wide, 2. An off drive by Andrew sealed the game for the Blues, Andrew himself scoring 18*, after 3 months out with a calf injury. Good news is he can play back to back matches for the first time in 20 odd years.

A thriller at Greenway won by Blues with 3 wickets remaining. Thoughts go out to Steve Williams and Jack Marsden with their head knocks after colliding in the fourth over.

A nasty sight to see and we all hope to see you both on the field sooner rather than later.

C4 Grade

WPHC Blue (Hiresh) Vs Bye

C4 Red (Ross S) 134 defeated Sydney Lions 106

It seems every game this time of the year is important and this round was no different.

Whilst we have only lost 2 games after 11 rounds we still sit in 5^th place.  It seems the top sides continue to play bottom sides and not against each other so even with wins the gaps remain. Still we are only 3 points from 3^rd place. This week we played Lions, whose position in the lower half of the table is not a true indication of their competitiveness and with us still without a number of players on holidays would require a huge effort today.

Losing the toss we were asked to bat at Annangrove Park. The ground very spongy and slow after this week’s rain.

Raynaldo and Anand batted cautiously for the first 6 overs against wayward bowling. Unfortunately Raynaldo got a thin edge through to the keeper to a wide one…single figures after last weeks heroics. 1-21. Suf and Anand then turned over the strike brilliantly until Anand retired unfortunately with back spasms….Henry then joined Suf and both played solidly putting away the bad ball.

Unfortunately some of the Lions bowlers were struggling with their width, and a frustrated Suf holed out from a very wide one for 17. 2-62 then became 3-63 just before the first drinks break when Raymond was also caught chasing a wide one.

After the break Henry hit some beautiful boundaries before being dismissed for a team high score of 23. Ross and Ram put on 31 for the 5^th wicket before Ross was dismissed trying to push the score along. Ram then went 3 balls later for 21. 6-113…..with plenty of overs left.

With sundries continuing to pile up, it was important we try to bat our full overs. Anand, Jake, Muthindra, Darren and Nathan managed to take us through to over 33 with some valuable runs..all out 134…….with Mr Sundries top scoring with 35. Kudos to Anand hobbling out with a runner to help us get to that score.

Taking the field with only 10 was always going to be a challenge defending a small total and with the Lions openers determined to exploit the gaps.

After a couple of slogs, in Sufs first over he managed to snare a very rare LBW. Ideal start 1-8. Rams second over saw the batters continue to pepper the boundary.

They were clearly looking to finish off the game as quick as possible…. Things quickly changed in Rams 3^rd over, and the fifth of our innings with 1^st and second balls knocking middle and off stumps out of the ground…Lions suddenly 3-18 and in some early trouble. No hat trick though as the new batter took no risks.

After 8 overs spin was then introduced from both ends…Henry and Muthindra very difficult to get away. With the batters frustrated, the Howard’s combined for a sharp runout (father to son) Lions 4/28. Whilst on top, we were well aware of the dangerous Lions Captain who has been scoring lots of runs this season. 2^nd ball he faces 6….next over 6..clearing the boundary by huge margins….our spin twins not phased though.

A couple of tight overs and our brilliant fielding restricting the runs…Muthindra then delivers a beautiful slow one….big slog …bat, pad , stumps broken….skipper gone. Henry then chimes in bowling their next best batsmen in the following over, Lions 6-63 at drinks…

After the break Darren comes on to bowl….now Darren has not bowled in several weeks so says he might be a bit rusty…first over a few boundaries….second over was then brilliant with a caught and bowled off a drive and only a single run.

At the other end Nathan (big thanks from C3 reds) bowled a beautiful 5 over spell tieing up one end.   His bowling resulted in our 2nd run out of the day when the new batter who was struggling to get off the mark, called through the established batter (and top scorer) for a quick single.  Wonderful throw  from Henry at backward point to Raynaldo runs the top scorer out. An important wicket with the last top order batter gone. .Lions 8/92.

With 10 overs still to play, and the batters pushing singles, Suf was asked to bowl again and had immediate impact…uprooting the stumps ….9/95….

With the batters intent to survive and taking a few singles, Ram was then brought back on at the opposite end to make things difficult.  2^nd ball of the over driven past Jake at mid on….Jake sprints off, batters take a single and turn for a second. Great arm back to Ram, 10^th wicket taken with batter 2 meters out of their ground…..Lions all out 106 in the 31^st over.

This was our best bowling and fielding effort of the season. 3 runouts, wickets to Ram 2-18 (5.2), Suf 2-16(7), Henry 1-21(5), Muthindra 1-15(5), Darren 1-15(3). With a catch to Darren.

Hopefully if results go our way we will be back in the 4 with 3 rounds to go.

 D1 Grade

WPHC Blue (Agniva) 2/246 defeated Kissing Point 124

A tale of two youngsters batting their hearts out in a must win game to maintain the top of the ladder position was what today was all about.

Back to winning the toss again, Agni had no hesitation to have a bat first, probably to try and give most of the squad a chance with the bat as we approach the pointy end of the season. Who knew at that moment that the youngest players in the team had different ideas!

Chintan, after almost a month long stint in India and Dubai was back to reclaim his top spot in the line-up and from the first ball looked to be in solid knock and at one point almost felt like we were witnessing a different Chintan altogether with most of the initial runs coming in twos!

Lakshya started off cautiously and gave the opposition a glimpse of what is to come after the first couple of deliveries! Then started an opening partnership which was a treat to watch – both Chintan and Lakshya making sure that the ball sniffs all parts of the boundary! So much so that we had our first casualty of the cherry going missing deep inside the Kuringai bush! Chintan fell for a might 21 to a peach from probably their best bowler – an U13 player!

Anubhav again after getting a decent start fell to a catch which defied gravity! Praneel then joined Lakshya and what eventuated over the next 90 mins or so would be something this team and the duo would remember for a long time. We witnessed some magnificent stroke play and rotating the strike masterclass. While Lakshya took the charge, Praneel played yet another anchor role and it was only after Lakshya reached his maiden ton that both went for it. We finished at 2-246, Lakshya 137n.o. & Praneel 56 n.o. This is our 536^th century.

With a strong total on the board, we knew we had a good chance at this!

Ravi and Rohan started off strong and a double breakthrough came in Rohan’s second over. Next up it was Pritam and Chintan. While Pritam kept things right, Chintan got the second double breakthrough in his second over, with one finding his own safe hands while bowling. Amith came in and found the middle stump with his first delivery of the day and from then on the opposition never really recovered and went about losing wickets frequently with 2 more going to Agni. Chintan came back and picked up 3 more and his first fifer of the season, one of them again was the catch of the day with Nirav sprinting almost 20 metres to get to lofted shot at cow corner!

A great result for the team coupled with a few brilliant individual achievements, and we are one step closer to the semis! On to the last one dayer next week vs Berowra at Arcadia!

WPHC Red (Diggers) 9/92 lost to Hornsby 1/74

Nothing really to say this week. We were well and truly smashed by a side that will go close to winning the comp.

Anyhoo on to next week.

By the way thanks to Hiresh for filling in and getting some great batting practice.

D2 Grade

WPHC (Roger) 87 lost to Thornleigh 8/221

Thornleigh were asked to bat first and did so with gusto scoring 221 for the loss of 8 wickets. Even though Holland Reserve is potentially a high scoring ground our reply was muted by a loss of early wickets, we never recovered and were dismissed for 87 in 22 overs.