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 152 lost to Galston Glenorie 2/153 – for our first game back we were welcomed by the return of Gav “Squeak” Taylor and celebrity appearance from Daniel “Dada’ Anderson. We lost the toss on a fast Greenway Oval with reduced boundaries, Glenorie sent us in. Phil “Philthy” Wurth got us off to a fast start with a quick fire 20.

We struggled a little from there as Gav had obviously forgotten that batting requires the use of a bat, and quietly asked each dismissed batsman to tell the boys that the ball was “hooping.” Enter Alex Connell and Ashane De Silva who put together a fantastic partnership to see us to the end of the innings. Connell with 28* and Ashane 44*.

Our total 152. An early wicket from Jobbo got our bowling underway. Unfortunately we couldn’t take enough wickets as Glenorie partnerships were established. Dan Costigan took the only other wicket as Glenorie cruised to victory with 9 balls left. A somewhat rusty performance from us today, hopefully getting all of the cobwebs out before our next T20 and Round 1.

2^nd Grade

Blue (A2) 8/118 lost to Kissing Point – the large crowd (Gandis’ missus) was stunned, as Snumpty won the toss. After punching the air, he finally said we’d have a bowl. Some lusty hitting and dropped catches saw Kisso reach 5/130 off their 20 overs. Fernie was the pick of our bowlers, taking 1/21, with Snumpty (2), Gandis (1) and Watties (1), our wicket takers. Jimmy McBrien, Fabs, Allan Raffa, Figgie and Snumpty Smyth took catches.

Our chase saw us fall 12 short. Most batsmen got starts, with our top 3 of Figgie (23), Raffa (22) and Fabs (15) top scoring. Great to blow out some cobwebs!

Red (B1) 5/119 lost to Berowra 4/122 – we won the toss at Gilroy college and decided to bat. The field was crap (as expected). We had good contributions from Rowan Keating 27, Nick Starr 23, Alex Turner 33 and Daniel Fielder 17 in putting together a respectable 119 on the garbage field at Gilroy.

In return we bowled respectably with just one Berowra batsman getting away from us. Contributions with the ball Nick Starr 1/20 (3 overs), Chris Williamson 1/24 (3 overs), Rowan Keating 0/30 (4 overs), Peter Flook 0/11 (2 overs) and Tom Hando a superb 0/6 (3 overs).

Green (B2) 8/97 lost to Sydney Lions 5/145 – with the toss won by the Sydney Lions, we were sent into the field to start. Our bowling started very well with Kristoff O’Meara taking 2 wickets in the 3^rd over, and having the first hat trick attempt of the season! And with Nathanial Chidgey and Prats Datar bowling very tight we had them 2/27 after the 6^th over.

After this however wickets were hard to get, with a few unfortunate drop catches not helping us, the Lions put on an 80 run partnership for the 3^rd wicket, and the game slipped away from us in the middle overs. The Lions ended on 5/145 with our best bowling figures coming from Chidgey 2/25, Kobby 2/37 and with both Semonn Oleksyn 0/16 and Ben Meikle 0/18. Special mention to an early contender for catch of the season to Nathanial Chidgey with an unbelievably sharp caught and bowl off the last ball!

Our batting innings did not start well with Aaron, Gunny and Stanton all falling with ducks to the same bowling. Dinesh De Silva come in an steadied our innings scoring a solid 25, before Riley Behlevanas and Rohit Ninan putting together a 59 run partnership! Unfortunately we fell short only scoring 97 runs after the 20 overs. The best batting coming from Riley Behlevanas (41), Dinesh De Silva (25) Rohit Ninan (23).

3^rd Grade

Red (C1) 3/129 defeated St Ives 127 – arriving at a dry Mt Kuring-gai Oval, we knew there would be plenty of runs on offer. Naps continued on from last season with his poor form at the toss. Losing the toss we were sent in to the field. The opposition got off to a good start until Ishaan Singh (1/15) got the breakthrough with a sharp stumping by Andrew Morris. Eric Junkkari (2/15), Rob Knapman (2/19) and Dave Larkham (1/22) all chipped in with wickets.

Enter Ray Khamis. Ray took the ball in the 16th over and went on to take 4/13 in 3 overs. All 4 wickets bowled.

Chasing 127, Eric Junkkari (22) and Andrew Morris (57*) got straight to work, making 37 runs of the first 4 overs. The pair put on a 70 run opening stand, putting us in a great position. Ray Khamis (29) put on a great display of power hitting with Ryan Gunn (16*) supporting, chasing down the total in 16 overs.

Blue (C2) 1/125 defeated Castle Hill 5/123 – the boys in the 3^rd grade Blue side all arrived at the ground with the expectation of meeting their new team mates and welcoming a number of new players to the club. After some choice words from the Captain about how ‘the leave is not a shot to play in T20 cricket’, there was a very democratic show of hands when the questions were asked ‘who wants to bowl (9 hands went up), who wants to bat high in the order (3 hands), bat in middle order (3 hands) and bat in the tail (5 hands)’. It left us wondering whether we had a balanced team, so after losing the toss and bowling, we at least started with our apparent strength.

New faces Aseem Goswami and Sam Hando both bowled accurately with the new pill, with Sam breaking the duck for the season and getting the first wicket. All 9 bowlers had at least 2 overs each to dust off the cobwebs, with the wickets shared between Sam (1/18 off 3), Matt Rashleigh (1/20), Ben Waldron (1/8), Stu Fiedler (1/11) and Adrian Chau (1/10). We managed to restrict Castle Hill to 5/123, which was an excellent comeback given they were 1/65 at the halfway mark.

We thought this score shouldn’t be too tough to run down as the Cheltenham outfield was fast. Raghu Chary and skipper Andrew Fiedler set about the run chase, and were largely untroubled throughout, in spite of some variable bounce and a bit of wayward bowling. Both players got off to flyers and never let the bowlers settle, staying on or ahead of the run rate throughout as they put on 118 before Fieds lost his wicket on 44 with the finish line in sight. Raghu finished on 55 not out, to start the season in style, as the winning runs were brought up with 2 overs to spare.

We’ll mix things up next game and hope to give a few more guys a bat.

Green (C2) 99 lost to Berowra4/147 – first match of the season with many new players who had not played before together. Well beautiful day to start proceeding with almost perfect cricket weather in the middle. Lost toss again (carrying on from last year grand final), we were asked to bowl first.

Early positives in opening bowlers managing to land bowls on the green. And then as you would expect, getting better and better thereon. Only problem being, by the time you get your rhythm, it is time for a bowling changes, this being T20 format.

Nikki O’Meara and Rank Sethi did well in conceding only 16 runs in first 4 overs. Next 4 overs we conceded 30 runs taking one wicket. Next 4 overs we conceded 42 without taking any wickets and this was the period where Berowra batsmen started take control of the innings. Last 8 overs we conceded 59 runs, which included best bowling figures of 1/18 from 3 overs to Rommel Pandey. Berowra finished innings on 4/147.

Chasing a good total at Campbell Park, we lost couple of early wickets. This meant but of re-building effort and first 10 overs we managed 44 runs for lost of two wickets. Nandu Ramesh first put a partnership of 40 runs with Manu Verma for 3rd wicket and then 51 runs for 4th wicket with Tarun Lath. That included very executed shots all around the ground. Nandu (60) was out trying to hit with team score on 96. And we lost last 7 wickets for an addition of 3 runs in the remaining 3+ overs.

A good match for new faces in the team to come together where most got some opportunity to get the cobwebs out in this first match of the season.

4^th Grade

WPHC 3/11 lost to Kissing Point 6/116 – Skipper started the day well, winning the toss and electing to bat. A steady start from Cody (14) and Willie saw off the opening overs. That gave Indranil (36) and Tanae (30) the platform to launch our innings to a competitive total. Late hitting from Scott Chapman and Peter got us over the 100.

Our turn to field and Dave Behlevanas (1/15) took the new ball and promptly removed one of the openers. Mahir Khan opened the other end and bowled a great line. Captain Buzz wrung the changes and Amith (2/14) made the next two break thru’s in quick succession. This got us back on even keel with point. Scott then bowled a couple of outstanding overs (1/12) followed up by a couple gems from Tanae (2/10) to keep the game in the balance but some lower order lusty hitting got Point across the line in the next to last ball. It was pleasing that we took our chances. Great game, played in great spirit, well done guys.

5^th Grade

Red 6/134 defeated Kissing Point 3/122 –the day started off well by winning the toss. We elected to bat and Ramil De Silva (42) and Ian Digby (28) combined for a solid opening knock before both retiring to give other teammates a chance. The next best batsmen were Rob Hanich (19) and Gautam (17). With everyone contributing we managed a total of 134.

Starting off the bowling, Dylan Bish was unlucky to not get a wicket, but Roshan was the pick of the bowlers getting 2-9 off 3 overs. With the main goal of giving everyone a go, a win was a bonus.

Blue 94 lost to Hornsby 151 – Karuah was as hard as a rock and difficult to field. We won the toss and elected to bowl as we had only 9’players. We managed to borrow 2 people from Nirav Desai’s relatives. Thank you to those two fill-ins.

Kissing Point opening pair hit 74 runs before one was bowled by Brent Van Wck with a catch to Nirav Desai. Our bowling was very rusty with 28 sundries but we did bowl 9 players. We had a slow start with the batting eventually hitting 94 runs. John Rose was the outstanding batter with 33 runs to his credit. The next best was Amitava Sen with 12 runs followed by our new recruit Nirav Desai. Hopefully, the rust will fall out and our performance will improve especially if we can cut down the number of sundries.