Match Reports

The T20 Grades comprise:

• 1^st Grade (A1)
• 2^nd Grade (A2 & B1)
• 3^rd Grade (B2 & C1)
• 4^th Grade (C2 & C3)
• 5^th Grade (D1 & D2 Grades)

1^st Grade

WPHC (A1) 5/121 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee 7/139 – a must win game if we were a chance at the T20 semis. Bowling first this week, Normo got themselves off to the good start, and picked up the pace especially during the middle overs. Rich Makin slowed things down for us nicely with his change of pace. Our bowlers did their best on a fast Normo Oval to restrict Normo to 139 off the 20 overs.

First game of the year for Buckets Scoular got him 3 wickets, 1 for Jobbo, Rich and Dan Costigan. We lost Philthy Wurth early and picked up momentum with some strong running between the wickets and good rotation of strike from Dan Heidegger & Jobbo. Dan departed for 35 off 27 and batted superbly. Unfortunately we couldn’t maintain the run rate and fell too far behind the required RPO.

Needing 10+ an over for the final 7 was too much of an ask (even for DA coming in at 5) ending up 18 runs short. Heidegger top scored whilst Jobbo added 32 and Costigan with 19. Off to Round 1!

2^nd Grade

Blue (A2) 4/144 defeated Glenorie 7/76 – we arrived at a green top on Greenway Park no.2, with Captain Simon Smyth once again proving his consistency by losing the toss to the Galston Glenorie Pythons*.

Being sent out to bat, Nick “Maxim” Bennett went out with a new stick* and we can confirm he’s rocking big wood. Smoking his way to 58 off 19 balls*, despite being tied down by the Dustin Martin of Pythons Cricket. Later Reginald* Bedi and Kylie Minogue*-Faber came in and nurdled the Pythons around to secure us a tasty 144 of our 20.

With ball in hand Simon “North didn’t sign Dusty” Smyth humbly only took 1 wicket in order to allow the younger blokes to step up. Lovey (no, not the duck), showed real leadership before the game by neglecting his CAFS assignment* to be at the game and receiving 1 wicket for his troubles. Luke “Meatphobia” Herzog and Lichaaaaa “Michael” Richards contributed with 2 a piece. Meatphobia being quoted after the game saying “I like salad. I love Steve Quanborough.”* North Didn’t sign Dusty then came on to close the innings, needing to bowl tight and keep them to less than 85 off. After which the game never looked in doubt.

 Red (B1) 6/89 lost to Sydney Lions 141 – we lost the toss at Annangrove Oval and were fielding after the Lions skipper chose to bat first. Flooky got us off to a flyer getting a wicket 3^rd ball of the innings. Due to the fast outfield the scoring was generally boundaries or singles. We got wickets regularly and managed to bowl the lions out for 141 in their allotted 20 overs.

All bowlers picked up a scalp. Bowling contributions were Tis Mistry 2/22 (2 overs), Ankit Grover 1/5 (2 overs), Peter Flook 1/8 (3 overs), Chris Williamson 1/11 (3 overs), Tim Leyshon 1/16 (3 overs), Rowan Keating 1/31 (4 overs) and Cam McBrien 1/34 (3 overs).

Our batting just did not fire at all aside from a superb 46* from Alex Turner. We were held in check comfortably by a disciplined Lions attack and ended our innings at 6/89 off our allotted 20 overs. Best contributors with the bat were Alex Turner 46*, Ankit Grover 13*, Cam McBrien 11 and Rick Turner 10. We are looking forward to the regular season in B1 oh hang on, A2 oh hang on, B2 oh hang on, whatever grade we get put in.

 Green (B2) 4/96 lost to St Ives 4/102 – with St Ives winning the toss and sending us into bat, we were keen to better our result from last week! Our innings started off well scoring 1/32 after the first 6 overs on a slow Headen Park pitch. And our great batting continued with a 37 run partnership between Stanton Tam and Dinesh De Silva. However St Ives bowled very tight through the middle overs and reigned us back in, with boundries becoming a rarity. We finished up on 4/96, with our best batsmen being Dinesh De Silva on 31, Michael Fiedler 18n.o. and Rohit Ninan 13n.o.

We went out to bowl knowing we had to keep things tight to defend this low score, but after 6 overs they were 0-38. But as what happened to us, we were also able to restrict St Ives middle order batting with a few tight overs in a row. With a few droped catches in such a tight game, it was always going to be close. Michael Gunn came into bowl and finally got us the breakthroughs we needed, taking the first 3 wickets of the innings! The game came right down to the last over with scores level, but the winning runs were hit with only 2 balls to spare. We went down in a close game but the whole team showed real character to make such a game from it! Best of the bowling were Michael Gunn 3/14, Prats Datar 0/11 and Semonn Oleksyn 0/14.

3^rd Grade

Red (C1) 3/53 defeated Castle Hill 49 – once again, Naps failed to win the toss and we were sent into the field. Matt Digby (3/10) got the first breakthrough in the 2nd over and it only got better from there. Sreeni Pillamarri (2/0) bowled a great spell, taking 2 wickets in his 2 overs without going for a run. With the opposition at 7/16 in gave us a chance to mix the bowling up. The bowlers were well supported in the field with 6 catches taken including 2 sharp chances taken by Ian Paterson.

Chasing 49 runs, we were able to mix up our batting order. A great combination of youth and experience opened the batting with Ian Paterson (19) and Zac Morris (13) putting on 33 runs. Sreeni Pillamarri and Ishaan Singh finished the innings off, passing the opposition’s total with ease.

Green (C1) 3/121 defeated Beecroft 6/83 – stand-in Captain Rommel Pandey made a good start by calling the right side of coin and for a change team got to choose what they wanted to do first. It was batting first. Slow but steady start saw team reach 2/33 after first10 overs. Pratah having scored 18 runs decided to retire himself to give other batsmen chance. And this is when Nandu Ramesh also started to accelerate scoring along with Asees and got team to 3/68 after 15 overs. Rommel joined Nandu in 15th overs and both put on 53 runs in last 5 over which included two sixes. Rommel finished with 39 no and Nandu 37 no with team finishing on 3/121.

Nikki O’Meara and Nandu started bowling innings with two maidens. Following bowlers in Raunak Sethi and Avi Lath kept bowling tight with Beecroft managing 3/33 after first 10 overs. 13 year old Avi playing his first seniors match finished with figures of 1/7 of his 4 overs. Asees, Shankar Ravi and Nick Duck kept the pressure on Beecroft batsmen right through to the end with Beecroft fining on 6/83.

Good team effort where most players seems to be all ready for the main season. Bring it on!

Blue (C2) Vs Sydney Lions – details not yet available

4^th Grade

WPHC (C2) 3/87 defeated Glenorie 7/85 – losing the toss and being asked to field, we started with a bang and had the opposition 4/25 after the first 6 overs. Excellent opening spells from Mahir Khan and Scott Chapman had the batsmen jumping around and wickets tumbling. Well backed up by Murray Chapman and Napier Gryst in the middle overs with Buzz and Tanay Hira bowling tight spells at the end to restrict Glenorie to 7/85 off their 20. Best bowling figures from Tanay (2/17), Mahir (2/21), Murray (2/23) and Scott (1/5).

Will Harvey and Indranil got us off to a strong start with Indranil smashing a well made 33. Nick Colley started his season well with a good looking 15 before Buzz and Peter Lees closed out the game with Peter blasting an elegant 29* including 4 x 4s in a row to polish off the winning runs. A great bunch of blokes, shaping up well for the start the season proper next weekend.

5^th Grade

Red (D1) 5/146 lost to St Ives 4/161 – to start the day off we lost the toss and were sent out to field. The innings started off well for us with an early breakthrough from Dylan Bish (1-20), but St Ives managed to continuously score runs off of our poor bowling. Tight bowling from Connor Hindmarch (0-20) and Lindsay Walker (1-23) restricted their run rate briefly but St Ives reached a total of 161 with the pick of our bowlers being Roshan (2-23).

Our batting started off not ideally, with a steady flow of wickets despite Ian (11) making a good start. Good batting from Dylan (49 not out), Connor (30), Gautam (20 not out) and with other partnerships along the way our total was brought close to St Ives at the end of play, reaching 146, which is a positive looking forward to the normal season. Most importantly everyone had a go to help us all get back into the swing of things before the 75 over games start.

Blue (D2) 5/62 lost to Thornleigh Gold 128 – we won the toss again and sent in Thornleigh to bat. Their opening pair hit 46 runs in the first 6 overs. Ian Williams bowled their main hitter who had hit 40 runs in the seventh over. Simon Rahmani in his first ever cricket game who proceeded to take 2 wickets for 7 runs plus a run out as well off his bowling via Ian Williams.

Danielle Chivers who bowled a very respectable two overs for the loss of 7 runs but no wickets. Danielle is only 13 years of age and showed good maturity and planning in her bowling. We also played two other juniors Agni Sen and Parin Pillamarri who showed some good fortitude in their attitude when bowling.

At that stage of the game, the wind picked up and became very strong and gusty literally roaring across Montview Oval. Our batters had great difficulty picking the line of the ball as it moved with the wind. To their credit Thornleigh bowled a very good line and length. At the end of 20 overs we had hit only 62 runs which included 25 sundries from Thornleigh bowlers.